


Fool's Gold

by HazardousFancy



Category: Moana (2016)
Genre: Anachronism, Anal Sex, Antennae, Bestiality, COMPLETE lack of historical accuracy, Cunnilingus, Double Penetration, F/M, Fantasy, Fluff, Kinda, LMAO, Macro/Micro, Outdoor Sex, Pirates, Praise Kink, Smut, Sort Of, Vaginal Sex, an experiment i guess, anatomy is meaningless, but i'm me so of course it's highkey fluffy smut, but you have to get through a few chapters of plot first lmao, crab sex, definitely, explicit crab on pirate action, honestly this feels a little bit like it should be tagged, just a lil, just a little, this is mostly an excuse to write smut so there's gonna be a lot of it, weird kissing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-04
Updated: 2018-10-07
Packaged: 2019-07-06 20:11:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 23
Words: 101,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15893268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HazardousFancy/pseuds/HazardousFancy
Summary: I read a couple of Tamatoa/Girl OC fanfics I really liked, but none of them ever got spicy! I started writing this just to fulfill that purpose, but I ended up writing just a super longass conversation and some roughhousing between a witchy pirate girl and a giant, narcissistic crab without anything saucy (yet?) EDIT: ok, sauciness has been implemented.If you know me, you are unsurprised that I landed on an oc/canon ship, god I'm predictable as fuck. (Real OTP is Tama/Sloth Monster tho) Who even knows, man. There is more, but I probably won't post it without going ahead unless I really don't plan on doing any more with this, so like, no promises.Disclaimer: there is no accuracy here WHATSOEVER. The timeline makes no sense, the references, the level of innovation the pirates have, and the immunity of the island residents I am aware is all complete bullshit, but this is just for fun. Just a silly little fantasy story. If you're looking for any kind of historical accuracy, turn back now.





	1. Block Meets Tackle

“Last chance to back out.”

The demigod, Maui, stood on the edge of the Lalotai gate.

Tally stared at him. “What? Sh-should I?”

He shrugged carelessly, “If I were you? Honestly? Yeah.”

“Feckin’ hell.” she put a hand on her forehead, dragging her hand down her face and letting her shoulders fall forward. She pouted for a moment before straightening up and taking a deep breath in through her nose. “Alright. Let’s get this over with.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He paused. “Here’s a map to his cave, by the way.”

He handed her a small slip of paper he’d been carrying somehow, and she put it into one of her many skirt pockets. Honestly, Tally was learning quickly that she quite liked Maui. If his powers and moving tattoos weren’t fascinating enough, for a man his size she had never known such a friendly one. Or at least, one who wasn’t immediately threatening. As much as he seemed not to personally care for she or her crew, at the Chieftess’s request, he treated them with more respect than your average red-uniform. However, his words now were _not_ comforting.

She wasn’t surprised when he seemed to speak in tongues and throw his hands down to open the gate, but she was taken aback by how literal the gate seemed to be. She wasn’t sure what she expected, but she didn’t think it would just be… a door, pointing straight down into dead air. A drop that rivaled the White Cliffs of Dover. Images of what she imagined Davy Jones' Locker was like flashed in her mind, and she wasn't completely sure that wasn't exactly what she was looking at.

She swallowed hard and looked down, sizing up the distance, or at least, trying to. She moved from one side to the other, walking around with cautious feet, willing herself not to fall in, and she heard Maui sigh exasperatedly. She turned to look at him with a scowl and he gestured toward the opening.

“Are you going down or what?”

Without taking her scowl off of him, she reached to her belt and quickly began to unreel the rope on her hip.

“What are you doing?” Maui seemed genuinely surprised, and she gave him a very confused look.

“I’m going down.”

He eyed her for a moment, letting her continue to fashion a knot around the tooth-shaped edge of the door before interrupting her.

“If you don’t jump, it won’t work.”

“Very funny.”

“Seriously. It’s like…” He sighed with twice as much annoyance, seeming to think for a moment of how to explain it. Tally wasn’t unfamiliar with natural terrain and she felt a little insulted for a moment before he continued. “Ever been in an underwater cave? You gotta swim to get to the air inside. If you fall, you’ll have the momentum to get there without suffocating.”

She raised her eyebrows at him, not convinced he wasn’t just trying to get rid of her.

He rolled his eyes. “Look, if you want to try to swim all the way down, be my guest, but I’m just trying to give you a helpful hint, Blondie.”

Trusting anyone was never a good move, even if they were right, caution was always the best option. But… He was a demigod, right? And certainly she had already learned about a lot of things she had never seen before from the islanders, who had been bizarrely generous. She remembered Homer and Odysseus, and decided to take a risk.

“If you say so.” She gave him a little salute, and he seemed amused by the motion.

“Wait.” He said and she stopped, crouched at the edge, and looked up at him with wide eyes. “Just one more thing. If he asks you what the deal is, just make sure he knows this isn’t my idea. Since the return of the heart, I think he might be a little less likely to just attack you on sight. ...Maybe. But he’s still… Tamatoa. And I just showed you the way, that’s it. What you do from here on out is your own business, got it?”

She frowned. “Yeah, I get it.” She paused waiting for anything else he had to say, not about to miss any details she could use, but he said nothing, and finally she did as he said. She jumped.

 

* * *

 

She landed straight on her ass. Tally knew she was lucky it wasn’t her tailbone, curled leg or shoulder, but it still hurt like hell. It would also inevitably be an embarrassing injury if and when she returned to the surface. The men knew she wasn’t a short-heeled lass, but if she came back rubbing her hind-quarters, she wouldn’t hear the end of it. She got up steadily, cussing and looking around haphazardly just for the routine of it before something large and unidentified flew over her head, and she fell to her knees again. She watched the great beast leave in shocked silence before finally gathering her breath and examining her surroundings with a keener eye.

This place the islanders had deemed ‘Lalotai’, was unlike anything she’d ever seen. Wild and beautiful, bright colors in the dark. Creatures she couldn’t even begin to identify seemed to swim in the sky, and fly over the ground.

Sometimes, when she was out at sea for long stretches of time with no earth beneath her, she would begin to question her sensitivity to the unseen forces of the universe, but down here it was no question, the air buzzed with magic, ancient and dangerous. If she hadn’t had a task to do, perhaps she would have liked to explore this place. With a team of ten or twenty men, of course.

She shook her head and stood up again. Slowly, this time, and paying real attention to anything that might disrupt - or attack her. Once she found her footing and didn’t see anything charging directly at her, she reached into her pocket and pulled out the slip of paper the demigod had told her was a highly detailed map, outlining the way to the lair of the monster she would have to face, and the home of this great ‘Tamatoa’.

Unfolding the little thing, it depicted a straight line from where she was standing to the cave directly in front of her. Unable to resist, she let out a loud laugh at the joke, flattered and impressed that the demigod had been clever enough to come up with it for one doomed woman. She covered her mouth as soon as she realized how loud she was though, sure she had heard someone somewhere say that making a lot of noise wasn’t exactly a fabulous idea in this place; and decided not to waste anymore time, determinedly making her way toward the cave.

 

* * *

 

Finding the entrance after some searching, the feeling she got when she looked inside for the first time was indescribable.

It was more gold than she’d ever seen in her entire life, put together. Sometimes her crew was wealthy, sometimes they weren’t, in none of that time could any of them have imagined this much gold even existing in the world, let alone all in one place.

A million emotions mingled into one. Disbelief - none of the villagers had tried to claim a piece of this miracle? She supposed islanders didn’t have any use for money the way pirates did, but Tally had grown up with a taste for the expensive, trained to crave wealth like any other pirate, and she couldn’t imagine not at least having a visceral reaction to seeing it. Even the smell of it, all that metal and sediment made her almost salivate. Maui, the powerful demigod, had seen this incredible miracle of wealth, and _not_ impulsively grabbed as much as he could before running to spend it? He must be an even better man than most of all the ones she’d known before.

Fear was another player in the game. She wasn’t planning on understanding the motivations of the islanders, but if _no-one_ had come to claim this, what was it that could possibly be protecting it with such success? What fearsome monster did this Tamatoa person have at his command that could protect such a grand collection? And what was he _doing_ with it? One man could conquer countries with this. With this, one man could bribe a god. A shiver ran down her spine at the great and terrible possibilities of it all.

Awe, too, was a major source of the shock in her body. She wasn’t even the one who prioritized the gold, she was the healer, the daughter of the Captain, not the treasurer, but the very fact that she was witnessing proof that this much treasure _could_ exist in one place almost brought a tear to her eye on behalf of all pirates before her.

It must have been at least a half hour of her being simply flabbergasted by the sight before her, quietly pacing back and forth, trying to comprehend it all, until she finally remembered why she was here.

She scanned the room again, this time looking for one thing in particular, and it was stupid - she knew she wouldn't find one piece in this sea of sparkle with an afar look, no matter how special, but she couldn’t bring herself to touch any of it.

Not because she deemed it sacred - nothing was sacred to a pirate, but because the room seemed to lack the one obstacle she’d been told to fear. Where was this monster? And where was this Tamatoa person? She was uneasy.

There was an enormous pile of gold in the middle of the room, too evenly distributed, too deliberately created. It was an obvious trap, and it almost seemed to scream magic warnings to stay away. But she couldn’t see the mechanisms of it. No obvious holes or wires. No even cracks in the walls or manmade additions. The only notable thing was that compared to the cool temperature of the cave that surrounded her, the pile seemed to almost give off its own heat. Probably because it was in the center of the room under a skylight, but if it was because the treasure was cursed or something, she wouldn’t be surprised. It was bizarre, like a dream she might have had about the tomb of an ancient king. With fewer of her teeth falling out, though. At least, so far.

Maybe the monster had escaped, she thought. The seemingly naturally created room was beautiful, but had very little living implements, and anyone who had this much treasure certainly didn’t live in his own hiding place. Probably a castle or ten in France, each with thousands upon thousands of rooms and luxuries for every guest. So, maybe he’d been distracted, left the monster alone here for too long. There was a rather large hole on one side of the cave, and she could see it only from the inside, covered with rocks and things on the other side. Maybe someone had let the monster out. With dynamite? That seemed silly. Or maybe the monster was so large it created the hole itself. That seemed more likely, and she was proud of the deduction before she was forced to finish the story with some anonymous source paying a team of 700 men to fill the hole created. It didn’t make sense. Nothing about it made sense.

There was definitely something she was missing. She racked her brain. She was supposed to be the clever one. If only she had the demigod or the woman Chief with her, both of them naturally knew a great deal about these waters, and they had put her own common intelligence to shame many times thus far. She had been happy to be given a break from the responsibility of problem-solving on behalf of her crew as the pirates learned clumsily to grow food rather than she and the ship cook trying to make do with rations, build shoddy versions of shelters instead of boarding up fresh holes in the ship quarters week after week, but this vacation from thinking must have made her rusty, because she just couldn’t figure out what to do.

It had been at least an hour of her carefully walking around the cave, not daring to reach out to any of the gold, just looking up and down the piles for her prize again and again, almost ready to tear her hair out before she felt the ground rumble beneath her feet.

Against all optimism, she couldn’t help but think, _finally_ . If she had triggered the trap, at least something had finally given. But instead of the ground falling out from under her, she watched the ground _rise_ , gaping at the impossibility of it. Sand seemed to fall off in barrels, but the gold did not. In fact, the whole pile seemed to stay together like one giant brooch as it stretched upward, out of her reach, the unsteadiness of the ground humiliating her sea legs as it threw her off her feet and onto the sandy floor of the cavern.

Foolishly, she screamed when she saw, that it too, had _legs_.

The monster. She covered her mouth.

The fearsome creature began to turn around to face her, and frantically, she grabbed her dagger, wrestling it from off her belt where she had it tied. If she was going to die, she was going to die fighting.

To her surprise, she came face-to-face with… well. It was a crab. A giant crab. She was frozen with fear and confusion. It looked at her for a moment, and it seemed to be sizing her up. Her mind was reeling, the monster had foresight? To give him something to consider, she grabbed her dagger and pointed it up in his direction to slice whatever implement he would send down upon her.

“Oh, _please_.”

Her eyes went wide as she watched the monster speak human words. She said nothing, no longer trying to make sense of any of it - she’d seen a lot of strange things at sea, even more in these waters - and instead began trying to process literally any of what she was seeing before her own eyes.

A giant claw came down to pluck the dagger from her hands, but she held on tight. Even when she could feel the skin of her hands rubbing raw while the monster’s grip was infuriatingly delicate in all it’s strength and she knew the fight was won, she was not going to make it easy.

The crab’s face fell. “Just let go of it.” The sound was petulant and she refused to respond, she just growled with one last yank, but the moment she pulled back the giant claw took advantage of her pause to rip it from her and toss it across the room where it stuck into the wall as if thrown by an expert.

“There, now isn’t that better?”

Tally was known for being talkative. Witty, even, sometimes. What she was witnessing struck her silent.

“Speechless, are you?” The crab chuckled, and moved a little to flash the gold on its back, using the light from the opening at the top of the cave to make the reflections dance on the walls. “Can’t say I blame you. You sure are a dirty, ratty little thing. You’ve probably never seen anything even remotely as magnificent as I am.”

“Where’s Tucker’s Cross?” She finally managed to choke out.

“She speaks!” The crab was apparently finding a lot of amusement in this interaction. The feeling was _not_ mutual. “Well, I guess I don’t have to ask why you’re here. Just another shameless little thief.” the monster let out a playful little hum, and somehow that noise scared her more than all the others had. “Well, I _was_ getting a little peckish.”

A sinister grin spread across the monster’s quickly imposing face, and Tally’s face went white as she realized what he meant. She started to get up but for how large this creature was, it sure was fast. A claw gripped her tightly around the waist, and began to lift her up toward its great mouth.

“Wait!” She shrieked.

There was a pause, and her heart dropped. That was really all it took?

Of course not.

“Oh, thanks for reminding me.” The crab said with disorienting nonchalance before reaching up to yank off her necklaces with one swift movement. The chain snapping against her neck made her grit her teeth, surely leaving a bruise, if she of course was going to live to see it develop, which didn’t seem likely. Similarly, the incredibly deft claw reached over to pull off her rings one by one. Despite the force with which the monster had ripped her necklaces from her, the claw barely touched her fingers as he let them fall off onto the ground below. Finally the claw was on her belt, and snapped it off in one simple motion. “Pretty shabby, but I bet with some polishing they’ll shine up nicely.”

The monster re-focused its efforts, inspecting her just a little, maybe making sure she had nothing left, maybe checking her for something that might be poisonous. When it was decided once and for all that she was, in fact, edible, the claw that began to bring her toward the crab’s mouth once more grew careless, and she felt it snap into her side, blood immediately gushing from the cut and the wind knocked out of her. She yelped, but stifled it in anger, tears forming in her eyes at the searing pain. Soon he was back to popping her into his mouth as simply as she might a berry. In the split second it took, her mind swarmed. When she finally found her voice, she was proud to hear it full of defiance.

“IF I DON’T COME BACK-!” She screeched, and with immense relief, this did manage to make the monster pause, for real this time; claw moving back so that one large eye could inspect her. She didn’t wait for questions. She glared into that gaze, insisting that she be heard. Maybe it was wishful thinking, but she thought she saw the monster’s expression twitch with worry. A confident tone of voice had gotten her out of a lot of nasty situations. She prayed this was one of them; but didn’t look up or mutter that plea to God, she continued to stare down the monster until she was almost sure she had its attention.

“If I don’t come back…” She huffed through the pain of the wound still bleeding down her hip and over the giant crab’s claw, alarmed by how much she saw there. She didn’t show it. “...My men will come looking for me, and you’ll be beggin’ to be boiled alive, crab.”

“Your ‘men’?” The question was incredulous, naturally. She didn’t falter.

“My _father’s_ men.” She corrected, “Captain Cutter, the ruthless terror of the south seas? Ever heard of him? He’s one of the most powerful pirates in these waters.” She lied.

“Uh-um… Yeah!” The crab seemed to scramble for words, which was very satisfying. “I’ve heard of him. Of course I have. Duh.”

“Well then you know that if I don’t return in a timely manner, he’ll come in here with his dynamite and pistols and at least seventy armed men.” She tried to make the number realistic, “You’ll be fish food, mate.”

The moment of worried expressed seemed to be gone, replaced by one of annoyance, as if she’d just taken the last apple from the barrel in front of a crewmate’s eyes.

Finally, the giant claw set her down on the ground again. She watched in horror as it raised back up only for the monster’s mouth to open and lick her fresh blood off of the pincer. She shivered, but couldn’t freeze now.

She scrambled around in the sand to grab the belt that had been snapped off and reach into the pockets, choosing her cleanest hand she pulled out a yellowing, but clean, bandage in a roll that had been protected by the leather, and immediately placed it in her teeth.

The giant crab suddenly seemed very interested in what she was doing, and she might have been pissed that it was taking amusement in watching her fix the wound its own appendage had inflicted, but she was hurrying.

Pulling out a small vial of whiskey, she set it beside her on the ground and pulled up her shirt, tying it in a simple knot to keep it away from the wound. She finally saw it and grimaced around the fabric in her mouth. It was grizzly. He hadn’t gone too deep, her insides were still inside her, and for that she was grateful, but the split skin was still sending searing pain through the entire right half of her body.

Eyestalks widened in surprise as she pulled open the whiskey, and followed her hand curiously as it brought the bottle not to her lips, but to her wound. She took a deep breath and braced herself before pouring out half the liquid onto the wound, biting hard on the bandage roll but nonetheless letting out a very necessary scream, letting the alcohol drip into the crevices of the cut and rolling down onto the sand, mixed with blood. She thought she saw the crab wince, out of the corner of her eye, but it might have been her imagination.

Soon as she’d tipped the bottle back up she frantically stuffed the cork back in the top, took the bandages from out of her mouth and wrapped them tightly around her stomach. Flatly and precisely, the way she had many times before, though usually on her crewmates. As much as she was sitting there trying not to show any weakness, this was bad, she could tell. Finally she used her teeth as the a third grip to tie the remaining edges of the bandage up through her shirt around her shoulder, securing it there. When she was satisfied with the bandage she let her bloody shirt drop over her side again and sighed. It was still painful as an open wound usually is, but the relief of the bandage and the extra sting of the whiskey fading away was enough for her to relax and put the bottle back into her belt before picking it up and trying to tie it around her waist again. She uncurled a few inches of rope, and looked around before remembering the whereabouts of her dagger.

“Can I have my dagger back, _please?_ ” She asked with just a little bit of venom and a lot of resentment.

The crab looked over its shoulder at the place where the knife had stuck into the wall and turned back to her. “Not a chance, babe.”

She scowled.

“But I’ll cut that for you.” She watched a claw raise and snap in the air, as if the display would entice her to agree. She didn’t trust this thing as far as she could throw it (which was nowhere) but she pretended to have no reservations about holding the length of rope up to be cut with the same claw that had wounded her. As if she believed her own threats, she didn’t flinch when it snapped, and she looked away afterwards, eyes casting down in a formal kind of thank-you, as if she was a noblewoman who had dropped her handkerchief and the crab was a gentleman who had returned it to her. She then went about tying the short piece of rope to her belt loops, linking it back together with knots.

She had silently thanked the monster as a false courtesy, and as a way to make herself seem important. She wasn’t nobility, but she could put on airs enough to be convincing for a little while. She was dressed in rags, hair dirty in a black wrap and boots worn through their soles, but if she acted precious, she was more likely to be treated as such.

To her surprise though, the crab seemed to react with equally modern etiquette, returning the gesture with a dutiful little bow. She didn’t hide her surprise, but instead of an explanation, he just gave her a wink from high up in the air.

She decided to ignore it.

Finally, she finished the last knot on her belt, and it was securely attached to her hips once more.

Absentmindedly, she also reached for her rings and necklaces, but a giant leg came down just before her fingers in the sand.

“Nuh-uh-uh.” The crab shook its head. “Those are mine now. Hmm. You really are a pirate girl, aren’t you?” The comment referring no doubt to her knot-tying, or her impulse to retrieve her jewelry, or maybe how she had tended to her own wound? Whatever, she wasn’t interested in banter. She put her hands on her hips and stared intently up at the indignant crab’s face.

“Where’s Tamatoa?” She asked bluntly.

The crab stared at her for a moment, and seemed to jerk, as if to say something, but paused instead.

“Why do you want to know?”

“‘The great Tamatoa’. This is his treasure, right?” She gestured toward it, and the crab looked around itself, neither confirming nor denying this. “Tucker’s Cross. He has it. But it is worth more than a shilling or two. Wouldn’t be surprised if he was keeping it in his home instead.” She paused to look around once more as if she could have missed a door in all her exploring, “If this is his stash, where is his home?”

“You’re looking at it, babe.” The crab gestured dramatically to the surroundings. “ _I’m_ Tamatoa.”

Oh.


	2. Bilged On His Anchor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tally apparently spoils Tamatoa all the way to rotten.  
> Also, doesn't she know being called a 'tasty snack' is a good thing?? SMH

In a way she felt better, she had no information about a nameless giant crab monster, she _had_ heard a few warnings and stories about Tamatoa from the locals around here. She was armed with at least a little bit of knowledge now.

She tried to hide her embarrassment, but he seemed to see through it - and let it go. She tried to let it go, too, and stand up straight again.

“Okay then, where is it?”

“Tucker’s Cross?” He asked as if it wasn’t clear. She didn’t even respond, she just gave him an exasperated look. “I don’t know.” He shrugged under his shell.

“You don’t have it?”

Tamatoa continued to appear pretty casual to her as he made a show of swiveling his head around to look around the cave. “It’s probably around here somewhere.” He grinned down at her smugly, and her temper flared. “I’ve been building my collection for thousands of years. It could be anywhere.”

Tallulah was not an angry woman. In fact, she was known as a mediator in her crew. When the men fought, if anyone was going to stop someone from losing an eye over petty arguments, it was probably Good Ol’ Tally. It used to be happenstance, but since her father started losing his marbles one-by-one, it became a duty. One of many. But this crab, this… _Tamatoa_ was so… _irritating_. To put it simply. Grumpily, she started to walk toward one of the smaller piles at the edge of his cave, the pain in her side crying out with movement, as if to emphasize her distaste for the creature, but after a few steps, she stopped herself, and turned to him with a thought.

“Wait. When I find it, are you even going to let me keep it?”

Tamatoa seemed to sit down, not digging down into the sand like she had found him, just not so high above her, as if he was taking a break from standing, seemingly to make his disinterest clearer than ever.

“Who said you were going to find it? Who said I’d even _let_ you find it?”

He reached over to grab her again, surprisingly avoiding her wound and closing his claw gently around her shoulders, lifting her off the ground as she gave a defiant yelp and plopping her back in front of his face. His face was clearly amused, like she was a doll he was playing with.

“I don’t remember agreeing to give you even a single coin, babe. All this here?” He lifted his claw to gesture to their surroundings, and his own back. “It’s _mine. Comprenez, ma petite souris voleuse?_ ” His grin remained smug on his face.

_French?_

For a moment she stared at him, narrowing her eyes, then she tilted her head back, just a little. Tamatoa, confused, was suddenly paying attention. He listened to her suck in air noisily, all the way down into her throat, she turned to look determinedly at the sand, and just as he realized what she was doing - before he could say a word of protest, Tamatoa watched in horror as she then spit a nasty glob of saliva onto the sparkling, clean sand.

“Hey!” He straightened up, throwing her an angry look, genuinely offended, as she hoped he would be. “Who do you think you are?!”

“Tallulah Lauren Cutter,” She gave a mocking curtsey, hoping she would be clearer in her sarcasm this time, “Daughter of Captain Reginald Cutter. At your service, oh _great Tamatoa_.”

It wasn’t well-deserved by any means, but a victory was a victory, however petty, and she took pride in showing him her own smug grin as he scowled at her before lifting a leg to dig quickly into the sand, sending a cloud of it flying in her direction. She coughed and waved away the dust before narrowing her eyes, now stark against her sandy face.

“That’s a good look for you!” Tamatoa laughed at her appearance before noticing she had picked up a pebble and chucked it at his face in return.

“Ow, hey!” He objected, but his face was starting to turn to amusement instead of distaste.

“I didn’t realize you were such a big baby.” She chuckled, not sure if she was serious about the insult or not. She gestured to the drying red stain on her side, “You can dish it out, but you can’t take it, aye?”

“Oh come on, it’s not that bad.” He waved a claw, dismissing the wound, “At least I _can_ dish it out. What were you even planning to do with that flimsy little knife of yours? You’d be here for weeks just trying to break my skin. I mean, really. You came all the way down here to the _realm of the monsters_ with a baby’s-first-dagger?

“It’s a Dirk, smartass.”

“It sure is.” He added as if it was an insult to her weapon, rather than a descriptor. “Do you even _have_ any other weapons? What kind of pirate are you?”

“A deadly one.” She kicked some sand his way noncommittally.

“Tasty is more like it.” He grinned, snapping his claw to remind her of the blood that had recently garnished it. He said it like it was a compliment, or even flirting. She was taken aback, and a little disgusted, but more than that his mention of weapons had reminded her of the couple of powder flasks she still had in her belt. A good reminder in such an unsure situation. The brief moment of introspection also made her realize she was playing kiddie games with a giant monstrous crab. Banter had trapped her despite her efforts to be straightforward. She sighed at her own folly. She knew she should focus, but irritating as he was, the crab was also highly amusing, and she’d apparently found herself swept up in his charm.

More than anything though, she was fascinated. Well, maybe not more than how interested she was in the treasure surrounding him, for better or worse she was a pirate after all, but she’d never met anyone or anything quite like this… being. He was a coconut crab, obviously; but he must have made some kind of dark deal with a sea demon to grow as large as he is. Or maybe he had really eaten enough to grow to the size he is now. He did say he’d been alive for thousands of years. She’d decided long ago that age meant very little, but, without a doubt, a thousand years was still a _lot_ of lunches. Not to mention, she could see even from the ground the amount and variety of trinkets on his back that the treasures were pointedly from all around the globe. Most of the items up there she didn’t even recognize. She couldn’t begin to imagine how he’d gotten them in the first place, since she had never heard any stories of any giant crabs pillaging the communities of the world. Cohorts maybe? Friends? Perhaps he was less lonely than he seemed, which was very, but it was hard to feel sorry for anyone with so much power and wealth. Her crew was her family, but she would be lying if she said the idea of having a lot of gold and also a lot of peace and quiet wasn’t a common fantasy of hers.

In addition to all the glimmer of his shell, gold decorated his arms and legs, some he seemed to have even stuck to teeth like the gold fillings of pirates she had known. He seemed to have all of his teeth though, so scurvy wasn’t the culprit. Maybe it was just fashion. Or maybe they were just barnacles. Or barnacles with gold dust embedded? Either way, his choices were creative, and she had to admit, he was thorough. Some of the items he sported were even considered tacky now, in Europe, but amassed on his back with all of his other treasures it was just one, big, beautiful sea of light.

“Checking me out, are you?” She was snapped out of her analysis as she turned back to look at Tamatoa’s face, grinning in self-satisfaction as if he’d caught her doing something that incriminated her to his advantage. Her face was plastered with simple confusion at this reaction. “No need to be shy, babe.” He assured, “I was _born_ to be admired. Take a good look.” He did a little turn around, which was still enormous and dizzying, but clearly to him it was a simple motion. “And don’t even try and tell me I’m not the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen, we both know it’s a lie.”

She would have given him another verbal challenge, but this was strange. It wasn’t quite a show of power, as she might have expected. He didn’t bring up all the conquering he had done to acquire all of his loot, if any. He seemed content to just be watched without any exposition whatsoever. His willingness to display the entirety of his body for one human he’d deemed a tasty snack at best was a surprise, to say the least. Being impressed by him, sure, frightened of him, absolutely, but admired? The situation felt tempestuous, and she would have thought he was trying to confuse her on purpose if he hadn’t finished his turning with what appeared to be an expectant, genuinely hopeful look on his face.

“Well… You _are_ , actually.”

She shook her head at herself, realizing that in some strange way, this was the truth; and he gave a proud grin. The amount of worth and the wealth of not only money, but stories he had collected and all arranged with loving care in a truly luminous display was more intriguing and more captivating than many sights she’d considered wondrous before, natural and manmade. She wasn’t sure which of those categories his display fell under. Somewhere in the middle, she supposed. Great art was always challenging.

Despite being genuinely awed by his collection, stroking the egos of men was not Tally’s favorite pastime, human _or_ crab. But with him obviously still attentive to what she would say, she wasn’t sure if it was fear of repercussion for her silence that encouraged her to continue, or if it was some kind of sympathy. He was fearsome indeed, but the expression he was showing her reminded her of a child who was proud of the information collected from his eavesdropping, and excited to receive their payment from the more noble criminals for his efforts. Usually she knew just what to say to praise those children, she’d ruffle their hair, give them an extra shilling, pick out something she was particularly impressed by in how they had completed their task and send them away smiling. But what on Earth could she possibly say to this giant monster crab with a similar sentiment? If this was what it took to get on his good side… well, she didn’t hate the idea. He was really something.

Honesty was always the key ingredient in these situations, and if she’d been throwing back a few pints with the crew, her descriptors of him would surely have been much more creative.  She tried to think before he might become impatient. Incredible as his appearance was, it was hard to voice these notions when she was still unconvinced she would be leaving this place in one piece, or at all.

Still, she mustered some truth for him.

“I thought I’d seen elegance in the state rooms of Buckingham Palace, but…” She paced a little, examining him just a bit more for inspiration. “I don’t think anything there even comes close.”

“You’ve seen the inside of Buckingham Palace?”

She gave him her own wink, which he did not seem to disapprove of, smiling back down at her, seemingly becoming a little more convinced that she was, at least to an extent, the pirate she claimed to be.

“Really it’s good you’re so hard to find.” She continued.

“Is it?”

“I mean, I’m sorry for everyone who’ll never get the chance to see this. See _you_.”

He beamed.

“But if any of thems in power knew what you were, they’d all be clamouring for ya. You’re a world wonder, Goldie. They’d take you apart, knockdown your try-works like a whale, probably cook your meat as a delicacy and sell your legs individually to the highest bidders. Maybe hollow out yer shell and use it as a palace in its own right.”

She was musing, but when she looked at Tamatoa’s face again, he looked sort of horrified and uncomfortable, and she had to stifle a smile.

“If this is your idea of flirting, babe… I don’t think I like it very much. Maybe you could reel it in, a little?”

She smiled up at him with undeserved sympathy.

“Sorry.” She added softly. Well, now they were even for the ‘tasty’ comment.

“ _Pirates_.” He muttered, apparently writing off her gruesome details by attributing it to her profession, which was fine with her.

“Golden _and_ impressionable? You could be honey.” She grinned. This was fun; if only for the reaction she was getting from Tamatoa. A little bit charming, mostly just flat out amusing. Other pirates weren’t always willing to have a conversation at all, let alone cared to understand or enjoy her quips, and she wasn’t regretting her choice to give the giant crab what he wanted. “All I’m gettin’ at is that you’re a spectacle beyond spectacles, aye?”

“Well, _that’s_ true.” He agreed happily, apparently quickly shaking off her grizzly word-picture.

“To be honest, I’m still resisting the urge to try and run up on your back and fill my pockets.” She admitted. To her relief, he seemed to laugh genuinely at this rather than take it as a threat. Sort of proud of herself for how she seemed to be able to make this great creature react to her words, positively or negatively. Despite her ‘status’ and childhood spent among large, confident men, she was still a young woman, a weak one at that, and she had known very few pirate women without notoriety or rank who commanded much of respect, or even consideration, by any kind of sailors. And Tally was definitely not one of them. Who’d have thought the most fearsome of all the sea scavengers would be the one she’d find hanging on her words?

“More than that though, I’m just wondering, where you _got_ all of those things. What are they? Where did they come from? How did you acquire them? And... what _are_ they?”

“You asked that one already.” He smirked, then sort of looked up at the ceiling in thought. “There are a lot of pretty crazy stories I could tell you, that’s true. I’m afraid some of them might be too wild for your little pirate brain to comprehend, though.”

“Try me.”

“Maybe later, hm? We’re in the middle of something here. Go on.”

She didn’t consider that maybe he didn’t actually know the origin of them all, but she also wasn’t sure she cared. Tall tales were a staple of pirate life, and she had the feeling Tamatoa was full of them. The thought was an exciting one, and if he wasn’t so terrifyingly irritating, maybe she would have wished for a way to hear them from him. Hell, it might be worth it as is. Ocean voyages were long and boring. Even a handful of new stories to share was a blessing. If she could get a good few out of him, maybe she’d consider forgiving the wound he inflicted. Pirates have been hurt worse for less, that’s for sure.

“Well, I’m just saying, you have _no_ idea how popular you would be at _any_ dockside tavern.” An abstract thought, and not a compliment on his appearance, but she was sure it was true nonetheless. “Everyone would be dying to talk to you. I’d be popular just for bringing you in. If only I could. A spectacle and a storyteller… you might be the ultimate free drink ticket, big guy.”

“So what you’re saying is that I’m a piratess’s dream, is that right?”

“You sure are.” She agreed, “And you’re all lovely and dangerous too? How could a lass resist?”

“Good answer.” He decided with a chuckle. “What else?”

Alright, just a little more. A _little_. If the fellas were here now to see her sweet-talking such an enormous monster the way she was, she couldn’t imagine what they would think. But in truth, she could think of a lot to say about him. And if her thoughts made him happy enough to actually bargain with her, it would certainly be worth it.

“Well I _was_ just thinking…” and she was, “Bet the sun at noon could start a blaze on your back without any tinder. Really, all that metal has got to be dangerous, right? Just a little bounce of light and you’d burn holes in all our sails.” He grinned. “I’d like to see what you looked like in the moonlight.” She added, and his grin shifted to a tone she couldn’t place.

“I’d like to see you see what I look like in the moonlight too, _ma souris_.” He agreed with a wink.

Tally was pretty used to aggressively flirtatious speech from lonely men, and had thought nothing of Tamatoa’s till now, but was that an actual _proposition?_ From a giant crab? Or did he have some reason to look forward to the night that she didn’t understand? She genuinely couldn’t tell. She decided not to take it too seriously, unconvinced she would enjoy what lay at the end of that train of thought.

Instead, she eyed him a little more, and this time he seemed particularly interested in where her gaze landed.

“Don’t think I’ve ever seen a crab quite as _vibrant_ as you, in the first place.”

“Well, I think that’s been established.”

“I mean, forgettin’ the loot.” If that was possible. Still, she gestured to his arms, “You look like you got your claws on a big pot of sunset and dipped ‘em in like candle wax.”

“You think?” He seemed genuinely surprised by this compliment.

“Kinda rainbow all over, you are.” She noted, looking over his body before her gaze returned to meet his, and she held it for a moment before adding a smile. “Got yourself a pair of pretty blue eyes too, don’t you?”

This made him break their eye contact and turn away.

She laughed out loud at what appeared to her as sudden timidness. “Too much?”

“Of course not! I know I’m gorgeous. What, do you think you’re the first person to comment on my... _Natural beauty?_ Don’t give yourself so much credit.”

Deciding this was probably a sign that she’d said enough, she settled in to bring the conversation back to the cross.

“So listen, I’m guessing you’re yanking my chain about the location of the cross, so let’s just let that little farce drop, aye? No more horseshit. What do you want for it? Everyone’s got a price.”

Tamatoa gave her a sort of blank expression, to her disappointment.

“I told you, I don’t know where it is. And even if I did, I _wouldn’t_ give it to you.”

“You sure, big guy?” She twisted her face up, “You know you could ask me for pretty much anything, right? I’m a pirate. If this turns into a chain-of-deals thing, I’m prepared. Whatever you want. Name it.”

“It’s _that_ important to you?” He turned his face curiously.

She fidgeted. “Yes.”

He seemed skeptical, which was understandable, since it wasn’t nearly as important to her as it was to her father, who she actually didn’t really trust to choose his targets well anyway anymore; and her mixed feelings about the expedition could probably be heard in her voice somewhere, but Tamatoa seemed to be playing along anyway.

“In that case…” He trailed off, and Tally perked up hopefully. “I _definitely_ won’t give it to you.”

He laughed heartily as her shoulders fell in disappointment and frustrated confusion.

_“Why?”_

“It’s more fun this way.” He winked. “How long did you say it’ll be until someone comes looking for you?”

“..By morning.” Damn, she paused for a split second and she watched his smile tighten with realization.

“ _Liar_.” It seemed more like a compliment than an accusation, but he stood up and seemed to find the will to be menacing again, beginning to eye her from different angles. “I bet you’re not even a captain’s daughter. In fact, I bet you don’t have _anyone_ coming to find you _at all_.” He chuckled. “You sure had me convinced though. That was pretty clever of you. You almost fooled me, but I think the _truth_ is that I can keep you down here for _as long as I want._ ”

She stomped in the sand to get his attention, though the sound was unimpressive, the dust kicked up still managed to get him to focus on her as a person rather than a snack, all over again. She reached into her shirt from the collar, and pulled out a medal. Her father’s, etched with his name, something he’d gotten made for himself long before she was born. Also something he almost traded for half a bottle of rum before she intervened, and she had been holding onto it for him ever since. This was not the first time it had come in handy for identification purposes, but it was probably the most important.

She held it out in front of the giant crab’s face, which was close enough now that he had to turn his eyestalks in on each other to examine it.

“You hid this?!” He sounded genuinely betrayed, as if he had any right to be. “Sneaky little… This is the most valuable thing you have without a doubt and you were gonna just let me eat it with the rest of you!”

“Maybe you’d have found it in your shite.” She offered, unsympathetic, and he scrunched up his face with exaggerated disgust.

“For such a poet, you sure do have really _lousy_ manners, babe.” He frowned. “I know sailors swear, but you don’t have to be gross about it.”

“Gross? _You_ were gonna _eat_ me-!” She began in disbelief at his insult, but stopped herself to save time. “Just _look_ at it.” She sighed, and he did. Analyzing it carefully, he was no doubt trying to decide if he believed it to be legit or not. After he had apparently verified it, he moved back again with a kind of disappointed grumble, which was pretty satisfying.

“Told ya.” She stuck her tongue out at him. If he would be childish, she saw no reason to hold back her own desire to be petulant, and she grinned as she saw his scowl tighten.

“Fine.” He growled, accepting the information. “What do you need the cross for anyway?”

“Why do you want to know?” She smiled, and he gave a confused look before he realized she was smiling in a victory of throwing his question from earlier back at him. She thought she saw him react with a smile, but just for a split second.

“ _You_ are the intruder in _my_ home, babe. I ask the questions, here.”

“It’s a… good luck charm.”

“Uh-huh.” He raised one eye higher than the other in his own interesting version of a knowing look. “And the fact that it’s 22 karats of gold and emerald-studded has _absolutely nothing_ to do with it.”

She raised her eyebrows at him.

“I said I didn’t know _where_ it was, I didn’t say I didn’t know _what_ it was. I know pirates are a superstitious bunch, but you’re a lot greedier than you are cautious.”

A hand on her hip and the other one on her face in a little bit of exasperation, and a little bit contemplativeness, she looked at the ground for a moment.

“Unfortunately, I’m not lying.” She sighed.

“Unfortunately?” This, he asked with great interest.

She just looked blankly at him for a moment, sort of waiting for him to figure it out himself from the information she’d given him, as if he could. Then she had to decide if she thought he really wanted to hear the explanation or if he was just being an ass. As surprisingly easy to talk to as Tamatoa was turning out to be, she had her goal, and telling him the whole story seemed like a waste of time. Not to mention, a waste of information.

“Why do you think I’m not shooing you out?” He cut into her thought processes with the question.

“Huh?”

“Or just giving you what you want? It’s because you’re kind of interesting. A little. Maybe. Well, not really you, but I like your compliments. Most of them. So if you wouldn’t mind getting comfortable, sounds like you’ve got yourself a curious little story. I’m keeping you here to entertain me, so you should probably get to telling it.”

“Gor blimey...” She couldn’t believe it. “Are you serious? Do you really want to waste time on this? My father’s men-”

“You think I’m scared of a bunch of drunk-off-their-ass pirates?” He chuckled, and she looked at him with confusion. “No way. Just look at me!” He pulled a claw up behind his back to tap his shell, the gentle contact sounded like the smacking sound of a mighty wave against a sturdy ship to Tally’s ears, and she had no choice but to agree, he was _beyond_ imposing. She’d almost forgotten how fearesome he was with how interested he seemed to be in (reasonably) polite conversation, and how readily he internalized her comments. Not just a miser, but a monster indeed. “You can send armies if you want, it’ll make no difference to me.”

“Then why… did you listen to me?”

“A bunch of clumsy little humans aren’t going to leave a scratch on me, babe. I’m tough as nails. But enough of them could probably carry out some of my stuff while they ran around waving their little pointy, shooty things at me.” He mused, “I’d rather not have more intruders. Especially not ones who can go running back to their little pirate book clubs on pirate Saturday to tell their little pirate friends all about me and my treasure. It’s a hassle I really would rather avoid.”

“Not worried about that with me, though.” She pointed out.

“There are a _few_ reasons why I’m keeping you here, pirate girl.”

Whether or not she had the choice to leave hadn’t even crossed her mind. She looked back toward the entrance of the cave, and she didn’t take a single step, but when her gaze returned to Tamatoa she saw that he had moved, rather silently, prepared to stop her from getting there.

Her blood ran cold. She tried not to show it, and posed defiantly instead. “So I’m your prisoner now?”  
“You’ve been my prisoner since the moment you walked into my lair.”

Well, since he had attempted to eat her, which would have made her a _permanent_ installation, she supposed he was right. Still, the information shocked her. She folded her arms, an attempt to look some way other than completely lost, which she was.

“At least, until we run out of time.” He added, “You said you needed to go back by morning, but I think we can both agree that’s a pretty lousy amount of time to give anyone, even a _deadly pirate_ like yourself, time to find something as elusive as Tucker’s Cross. So what’s our _real_ time limit, hm?”

She wasn’t sure where all this ‘we’ business came from. She was pretty sure they had not yet come to any kind of agreement, or even a truce, since she was apparently his captive. Well, he could keep her here, but he couldn’t force her to speak. She tightened her folded arms and stared him down.

“Oh come on.” She found an antennae near her face and practically jumped in surprise, “Gimme a hint, babe.” She swatted it away.

“What are you expecting?”

He didn’t respond, but widened his eyes a bit, and she thought he looked a little unsure. Good.

“You keep me from leaving until I just… decide to tell you when the time is up? And you’re gonna magically know when I’m finally telling the truth? I thought you wanted to keep your stash a secret. Are you really that devoid of entertainment? The islanders told me to fear you, they didn’t tell me you were so _needy._ ”

His wide eyes quickly began to narrow as anger seemed to become forefront in his mind. And she realized maybe she had pushed it a little too far. Fuck.

“If you find my company _so_ _repulsive_ ,” He began, much more dark intent in his voice, standing taller and slowly approaching her until he was uncomfortably close, “Maybe I just do the _smartest_ thing for me and snip your vocal chords, hm?”

His claw dipped under her chin to grab her neck on either side of her throat, pulling up just a little so she had to strain and her face was stuck staring at his own. Her expression was blank, showing nothing but regret over her comment. He squeezed, just a little, and even though the grip wasn’t painful, if primordial fear of such an obviously physically dangerous creature wasn’t enough, the pain in her side was reminding her to fear his intent, too. She swallowed hard.

“Send your _ungrateful_ seaworn hide back to daddy all nice and safe, but telling your dirty, rotten thieving friends where I am just isn’t a problem for me anymore.”

Her eyes just darted around in panic, and he seemed to take this as some kind of communication. “Think I can’t do it without killing you? _Do you really want to find out?_ ” He growled, and pulled her up just a little more, forcing her to stretch to keep her toes touching the ground. Her hands grasped feebly at the junction where his pincers were closest to each other around her throat, scratching and clawing at his immovable grip, her eyes finally settling on a target - his face - staring burning holes straight through him, telepathically cursing him with every insult she could think of. He didn’t seem to care though, and it was only when he seemed to find her squirming too pathetic that he let her drop.

She landed on her knees, coughing and gagging, rubbing the skin of her neck with no real aim.

“Not…” She coughed, “Cool…” and gagged. “You… Son of... a _bitch_.” Her voice was hoarse and her neck hurt, but determination forced the words out in a dry growl.

“Hey, my mother was a saint!” The giant crab brought his claw to his chest just under his neck, as if he were genuinely offended “...I think.” The silliness with which he spoke was a stark contrast to his attitude just a second ago.

She didn’t stand up, instead she leaned on her side - the not-mutilated one, as if she was on a chaise lounge and was just too tired to move. Her heavy eyes furthered the effect, like the fear had sucked all the life from her.

He seemed to relax quite a bit, now that he had her on the ground and had re-asserted his dominance, patiently, smugly waiting for what she would say or do next.

“Is there _any_ chance you’re going to cooperate with me?” She begged, her throat still tight.

“Nope.” He grinned.

She sighed, and stared at him for a few moments. “Fine.” She lifted her hand and let it fall, “Let’s have some g’damn posh-ass tea time, aye?”

“That’s more like it!” The crab grinned happily, getting his way apparently concluded in removing all his outward hostility. “Now,” He adjusted his position, making himself comfortable sitting in the sand again, “You were going to tell me about the cross, right? Seems like there’s some history there, ey? If only I had some popcorn!”

She didn’t speak for a moment, and he quirked an eye at her, encouraging her to begin. No hostility this time, but she wasn’t going to fall into the trap of pleasant company again, so she quickly started her tale.

“My father wants it. It’s more than a good luck charm, it’ll let us sail safely through _monster-infested_ waters.” He frowned challengingly, she raised her hands in defense. “But if we find it, it’ll also be the most expensive thing we’ve ever... acquired.”

“Stolen, you mean.” He smiled, knowingly.

“Uh, yeah. And we would be set for life.” She paused, her voice having dropped all humor and enthusiasm, giving him the information with a dull attitude. “And, you know…” She paused for a moment, thinking, “If you really do have it, it’s probably the most expensive piece of loot you got. So I understand why you wouldn’t want to give it up.”

This made Tamatoa curl his lip and turn his eyes inward and down, antennae perking up in his own defense. “Aren’t pirates supposed to be more knowledgeable than that about the finer things? That little trinket is not even _close_ to the most expensive thing I’ve got here.” He insisted.

“Oh?” She raised an eyebrow, “What is, then?”

“Well, I’m glad you asked, _mon chérie._ ” She watched him turn to look around on his own back, moving the decor around a little, his tongue falling out of his mouth as he concentrated on finding what he was looking for.

After some clinking and clanking, he seemed to find whatever his target had been. In his enormous grip was something surprisingly small. Maybe a music box, a clock, a brooch, she couldn’t tell - and it didn’t matter.

 

* * *

 

 

“I know it’s deceptively small!” He began cheerily, admiring the piece as he turned back toward her “But as far as expensive goes-” He finally raised his eyes to see her reaction and found her standing with a lit match against a small fuse attached to something in her hand that looked for all intents and purposes to him like a cheap clay liquor flask. She looked at him blankly, legs apart for a stable foothold, shoulders squared toward him. He might have been somewhat charmed to see the nonthreatening sailor girl appearing so predatory, if she hadn’t interrupted his gaze by tossing the flask on the ground before him.

“HEY!” He screeched, and moved to stop her when the flask exploded, not a force strong enough to flip him onto his back, but enough to force him to scramble to find his footing on the other side of his den and swamp his vision with smoke. When it cleared, she was gone. _Rings and all_.

Ugh. How disappointing, he thought. Never trust a pirate.

He growled angrily and stuck his head out of the entrance to see her making her way toward the geyser, a proud, venomous grin breaking onto his face as he watched her struggle to move with the deep cut in her side still causing her pain.

In a flash he turned to dig, and soon he came out if the ground on the other side of the cave, but he was too late. She was gone.

Bummer.

 


	3. Reverie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> POV change, started in the last one, it's Tamatoa Time I guess.  
> I'm probably just gonna switch POVs based on what I think will be the most fun to read & provide the best info. Idk how writing works

Not that he wasn’t already pretty accustomed to the rhythm of the geyser outside his lair, but it was still a dramatic example of relaxation as he watched it go off again without a flinch. Since his little friend had escaped, he’d been just sitting outside his cave, staring up at the water of the Lalotai entrance dance and swirl, sort of just wondering what she was up to.

It wasn’t that he really cared, he mostly just wanted an excuse to stay outside for a little while. If there had been one good thing about what had happened with Maui, it was that his home was significantly easier to dig out of. The integrity of it was only on one side now, a majority of the wall built up with rubble, easy to let crumble and push together again, and with less treasure to worry about losing to the earth beneath him, he found himself much more comfortable leaving his home when he saw fit. A handy option to have, even if it came at the cost of seeing an example of his own impulsiveness and defeat staring at him every day. That damned wall of rubble. Looking for a new home would have been pretty stupid. To achieve the same result he'd have to find somewhere even bigger, and that would just be stupid (because he didn't have the treasure to fill it anymore, though that he didn't entirely admit to himself). What was he supposed to do, find a bigger home for not much and just make himself a bigger target out of what, pride? The bigger they are, the harder they fall. He’d learned that the hard way… And if there was one thing more embarrassing in Lalotai than being hoist by your own petard, it was not learning from your mistakes. Though the new feature hadn’t exactly come through for him this time, since his new friend had escaped anyway. There was no reason to look for a new place to live, that would be giving up, maybe. But also, maybe after everything that had happened with Maui’s hook and so much of his treasure getting scattered to the four winds, he might have been just a little bit demoralized. Maybe. Just a little. But whatever, he liked his cave, using the new psuedo-door an excuse not to feel like he had to relocate out of pride was just fine with him.

Anyway, it was nice and cool out here. Open and clear, moving scenery and a breeze he didn’t mind having access to after all.

What had he been staring vacantly up at the Lalotai entrance about? Oh right, the pirate girl. What _was_ she doing, anyway? It was probably worth thinking about since she had threatened him. Getting him in trouble, probably. Maybe telling Maui of his cruelty? Something like that? He watched the colors in the water spin dreamily, leaning his head on his claw like a teenage girl waiting for her boyfriend to call; which didn’t feel totally inaccurate, since she’d left him high and dry in what he felt was much the same way. Forgetting all of his own previous hostility and rudeness, simplified in his mind, she’d simply come all the way down here just to admire him, give him a few sublime compliments, then betray him without remorse. Love him and leave him. How cruel she was, taking advantage of him like that! And she didn’t even leave him a single piece of her jewelry for his trouble. She was a heartbreaker, that one.

Finally letting his little fantasy version of the situation fall away, he lost his focus on the motion of the current as he actually buckled down to think. Pirates were here, that was the real takeaway from this. He couldn’t decide if he felt sorry for the local residents who certainly had done nothing to deserve the intrusion, or if he was amused by the idea of a pirate infestation shaking up their daily lives. If it was headed by his little _souris de cale_ , they were certainly in for some excitement, or at least, some entertainment. If there was one thing that was comforting for all of the residents of these waters it was that, as he took apart the information she had given him, regarding her crew, it didn’t take long for him to realize they were probably pretty aimless. It’s possible the rest of the crew had a motive they were keeping from her, but since she was the one they had sent as their makeshift diplomat, somehow he doubted it. If they brought any danger with them, it was probably disease at worst. Which could be bad, but the islanders had been through worse.

Tamatoa really hadn’t thought about who had told her that he might cooperate with her, but after she’d left, it wasn’t hard to figure out. Near the geyser he had found a tiny slip of paper with a tiny map painted on it. A straight line from the Lalotai entrance to Tamatoa’s home, marked with an arrow, not a pirate’s usual “X”, and generously labeled “Tamatoa Lair”. The handwriting was unmistakable as being Maui’s. Why he’d helped her though was a mystery to Tamatoa. He couldn’t imagine what good Maui had thought would come out of this, other than Tamatoa getting to spend a little bit of time with her, but Maui wasn’t exactly a dedicated wingman at the best of times. For some reason Maui had opened the gate for the pirate girl knowing full well she wouldn’t succeed in stealing a thing from Tamatoa, and be forced to bargain with him, but Maui also, for some reason, seemed to have forgotten to let her in on that part, since she was clearly pretty unprepared for who - and _what_ \- she would find.

He really wasn’t offended that she hadn’t picked up that he was going to be a crab until he made it explicitly clear, he wouldn’t have expected much more from a pirate of any type. No doubt she barely knew where she was, let alone was a part of the grapevine. Pirates and preparation were not synonymous with each other. With all their swapping tales of the supernatural and invisible dangers hidden all over the sea, they never seemed to have any consistency as far as he could tell; or any education about how ritual magic was distributed in each part of the globe. He wouldn’t be surprised if, when Tallulah Lauren Cutter’s new tale finally reached the next country he’d been changed from a giant crab covered in gold to a giant turtle covered in silver instead.

He wouldn’t say that he disliked pirates. Fully well, he understood the desire to scavenge and grow their wealth and status, and when he came across them it was fun to converse with a scoundrel who had opinions about, and sometimes pockets full of, jewels and things. Pirates couldn’t hold any moral superiority above Tamatoa whatsoever, and subsequently were also a guiltless snack.

They didn’t usually come to these islands in the kind of groups the Tallulah girl had been describing though, if only because they would get lost, attacked by kakamora or some other hostile force, nevermind the natural flow of nature which never seemed to favor pirates as a species. He wondered how they had managed to make it to the islands. Maybe they were really as harmless as he was suspecting, and the ocean itself just didn’t bother keeping them away. Again, an entertaining thought.

As inept as he imagined her crew probably was, he wasn’t going to underestimate them though - she’d had explosives, that was enough to afford them some credibility as a dangerous force, even if the most likely outcome was the idea of them blowing themselves up and disturbing their new island neighbors. The image of a bunch of pirate body parts raining down on Motunui was entertaining, even if he was pretty sure the local residents would have a miserable time cleaning up. But if Maui had felt comfortable dropping a whole, live pirate into Tamatoa’s metaphorical lap, obviously they had some kind of alliance, or at least some kind of peace between them. Unless Maui had sent her down just hoping to use Tamatoa as a convenient weapon to get rid of her. If that was the case, he couldn’t help but find a little joy in his failure to do so. He would have liked to be the victor, whether their interaction had ended in a real fight or some kind of agreement, but if his loss made Maui’s life a little more difficult, he couldn’t say that wasn’t an enjoyable thought.

They had a truce now, that was true, but no matter how chummy (ba-dum-tshh) they could be, giving each other grief would probably always be their favorite game to play, and Tamatoa was happy with that. Without a worthy opponent, even one that was also his friend, he expected he’d get pretty bored.

But this was an odd move. Surely Maui didn’t actually expect Tamatoa to give up the item to a pirate who would inevitably _not_ treat it with the care it deserved. More than likely, in a roundabout way, this was Moana’s doing. The task simply carried out by her precious demigod. At this point, Tamatoa had been entertained by a few conversations with the chosen girl since the truce of Maui and himself, and no doubt she would continue to mistake Tamatoa’s charm as goodwill. Well, maybe sending Miss Poetry back with her wounds was a good idea after all. Maybe he should have injured her _more_. That might teach Moana not to send any more desperate, depraved little visitors his way. Maybe.

He was sort of regretting giving his guest such a hard time, actually. He wasn’t _really_ going to keep her down here long. His plan had been for her to join him in some more fun conversation, tell him a little about what nonsense the Europeans were up to these days, maybe get a little more of that pretty poetry out of her (or a lot more), and then he’d say ‘just kidding!’ and send her on her way.

So he had to use force to get company, so what? Who didn’t? In one way or another. It was the hand he’d been dealt at this point. Certainly his little friend simply couldn’t understand that. When you live short human lives filled with all sorts of other humans, hundreds of accumulated years alone was something she probably couldn’t even comprehend. But _he’d_ learned not to leave things up to chance. Maybe he was a little controlling in this habit, sure, but he was not, under any circumstances, _needy_ . The word still turned into anger in his chest, even if it was just a short burst now. How rude. And _wrong_ . Since his reputation had suffered, he’d been a more popular target in Lalotai. Not to mention, a more approachable presence, apparently. Not that he wanted to be. He didn’t need to hear every monster’s sob story about their encounters with Maui as if he was somehow on their level now, because he wasn’t. His conflict with Maui was different than theirs, and he’d had plenty of times to restate this fact. Yes, he had _plenty_ of visitors, he decided. More than he could handle, even. He wouldn’t apologize for having standards. Though if his standards were dirty little pirate women now, maybe he should reconsider what that definition was.

Still, he’d rather she return than a comrade of hers. This cross seemed important to her crew. If these pirates lived as simply as he suspected they did, there was a possibility that they would let it go after seeing what he’d done to one of their own, but it would be a surprise. More likely he’d get another crewmate visitor trying his own attempts to take the cross from him. One with less creative praise, and a less cute face with which to admire Tamatoa. However, if he _had_ given her the cross, he’d never see her again anyway. Maybe it went as well as it could have.

He was sure whichever of her men she would send next would also admire him, because who wouldn’t? But he wasn’t going to hold his breath that he would be very fun to flirt with, or would give him the same look of genuine admiration when he talked about himself. Not to mention, if he did actually decide to hand over the cross, he’d much rather give it to her. He wasn’t sure it would be quite as satisfying to see one of her cohorts eyes light up with joy like he imagined hers probably would. Pirates were fun to mess with, but finding a cute one was pretty rare. Not that she was particularly gorgeous, she might have been a young woman but she was still a pirate, dirty and surly and unkempt like the rest of them. She hadn’t exactly challenged his perceptions of pirates. She was kind of a frumpy shape with one of those gaudy European noses, and why did pirates seem to hate color so much? Dressed in all gray and brown, the colors she did sport were dull and ugly. With all she’d said about elegance and vibrancy, a crab would think she would care a little more about her appearance. Maybe Tamatoa would go easier on her if _she_ were a crab, since humans naturally had to work harder to be less gross - being mammals and all, but somehow he doubted it. Beauty was universal. Mostly.

Though, as he considered human motivations, briefly he realized that maybe there was some advantage to making oneself less attractive if you were a frail female spending months alone with self-identified immoral males of the species. But she seemed to have only good things to say about her crew, and threat of assault was not a deterrent for many, himself included. Being beautiful was worth the risk, there was no question about it.

He was sure she’d clean up nicely too, even if he would never see it himself (again, bummer), if she did come back he liked the idea that maybe it was him who could convince her to put a little more effort into it. He was also pretty sure, despite her obviously greasy hair and dirty clothes that she maybe did have _some_ sense of self beyond what a pirate usually did. He noticed that she at least had displayed (mostly) clean skin and nails, and some kind of scent she was at least _trying_ to mask her natural human smelliness with; and it made him smile to think of her unable to resist preening despite the impracticality of it. Luckily for her she did have her own set of pretty green eyes, a reasonably even distribution of that black stuff sun-sensitive pirates sometimes displayed painted over them, which was kind of nice looking in its own way, and some sense of style, dull and worn as the pieces might have been. Despite his criticism, she was still probably the most comely pirate he’d met, at least, as long as he could remember. Most importantly though, she seemed to know a decent amount about gold and jewels, enough to have a conversation about it. All-in-all, he’d lost a cute treasure-enthusiast. What a pity.

Well, he might as well return to his lair and actually find it. He was pretty sure he had it. Actually, very sure, he remembered what it looked like, but _where_ it was..? Well, this would be quite an investigation. Not that he had anything better to do, really. But even if he wasn’t planning on letting it go to the pirates, he felt he had better know where it was himself. Probably a good idea. And maybe he could think of a way to get his new friend to come back again while he was at it.


	4. Swinging The Lamp

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heyyy this switches POVs a lot lol. Maui then Moana then a paragraph of Tally then back to Moana. Also hey, new characters. I am very aware that there is no flipping way these characters would all speak the same language, but you know. Fantasy.  
> Also implied Maui/Moana

The pirate girl watched the sails, tackling the task of keeping the eye of the wind on their side. Maui sat on the back of the boat, holding the oar casually on his lap now that they were on a straight path back to Motunui. Maui was really regretting not making some kind of plan for what would happen if she was down there too long. After she disappeared into Lalotai he suddenly realized that he really had not made any kind of arrangements for himself. If she was down there too long, then what? Not only would he be bored out of his mind waiting, but would he have to go down there and get her? See if she was dead? That was _not_ what he wanted to do on such a beautiful day. Luckily, she had put his fears to rest by arriving back safe and sound. Well, more like wet and bloody, but she was alive, and she still had all her limbs. Maui counted that as a victory.

He had been pleasantly surprised that she had been a reasonably capable sailor, even if on the way to the Lalotai gate she never seemed to shut up… So it was strange that now she was silent, staring out at the sea in front of them as if she was going to will Motunui to appear on the horizon. He was sort of enjoying the peace and quiet, but curiosity got the better of him.

“He got you, huh?”

She turned to look at him, no particularly telling expression on her face but letting him know he had her attention. He gestured to her now dark-red bandage.

“Uh, yeah.” She looked down at it, and kind of laughed breathily. “You were right.” She finished with a little sing-song voice as if that was what he wanted to hear, maybe to get out of an ‘I told you so’.

He rolled his eyes, “Okay, yeah, I was. I usually am. But you can still complain, if you want.”

At this comment, her face changed dramatically, her eyes became brighter and she focused on Maui with a lot more intent. He was just a little taken aback - hoping he hadn’t opened a door he would learn that he’d rather have kept closed.

“Really?” Was her still disorientingly simple reply, but her voice had a lot more energy in it.

“Yeah, sure.” Maui shrugged, trying to make it clear that this was an offer, not a request. “The only person I ever really talk to with firsthand Tamatoa experience is Mo, and she’s pretty focused. He’s talked about pirates and stuff before, but I’ve never really gotten a chance to talk to any of ‘em before uh…”

“He eats them?”

“Well, uh, yeah.”

“That’s right… you are friends with him, aren’t you?”

Maui chuckled. “Something like that. We’ve been enemies for a _really_ long time, but lately he’s been a little… pathetic. It seemed like a good a time as any to bury the hatchet. Moana’s insisting on it was a pretty big part of it too, she’s hard to say ‘no’ to, let me tell you.” He paused, “If you’re wondering if I’m gonna get offended on his behalf, you can stop worrying.” He offered “I’m sure I think a _lot_ worse about him than you do. Besides, I’m sure he’d love to know we were talking about him, the self-obsessed crustacean. So what do you say, Blondie? Wanna talk some shit?”

He watched her face immediately relax as she sat herself down on the boat cross-legged facing Maui with a look of incredible relief and a smile.

“Oh my god, _yes_.”

Maui couldn’t help but laugh just a little. “See? We’re not so different.” He added, “Nobody doesn’t love gossip.”

“You’re damn right.” She agreed. “Giant killer crabs are a pretty new topic for me to tackle, though.”

He laughed a little, “You’d be surprised how common it is around here. So tell me, what did you do to deserve _that?_ ” Maui asked, gesturing to her side.

“I mean, I do steal a lot.” She sighed and looked up at the sky, “Kind of goes with being a pirate. I probably had this coming.”

Maui raised an eyebrow, and to his pride, he was happy to see it had the same effect on foreigners that it did on the islanders. She instantly dropped her jest, and he could see honesty bubble to the surface. If only Moana were here, maybe with this reaction he’d be able to convince her that keeping these pirates around wasn’t worth the novelty - humans were the same everywhere. Not that Maui really minded these ones in particular, they were pretty funny to watch, and he couldn’t pretend he didn’t love seeing Moana get excited when she had something new to be excited about, but as long as they were here he wasn’t going to let them take advantage of her or the people of Motunui. Not a chance. They were criminals by definition. Just because they were friendly now didn’t mean they deserved any of her trust. He wasn’t so sure the ocean had made a good call this time, letting them in. But it probably had _some_ kind of reason. Moana was pretty convincing about that kind of thing. He’d give them the benefit of the doubt. For now.

“He just… did it. He was going to eat me, and I guess he got sloppy.” She was clearly processing all of it while she said it. “Just clipped me while he was bringing me to his mouth, he did.”

Maui was sort of surprised that she didn’t say any of this with too much shock. He couldn’t be convinced of the pirates competence, since he’d been spending quite a lot of afternoons lately watching the more generous Motunui residents teach them how to make shelters from the ground up, and let them know what on the island was actually edible. But as far as being a pirate goes, it seemed like they weren’t faking it. Or at least, she wasn’t. He wondered what else she had seen in her life that made a giant talking crab trying to eat her seem not all that upsetting.

“He was a real bastard about it too.” She added, and Maui let a big smile break out on his face. _This_ is what he was waiting to hear. “Acted like he’d just run into me on the street and made me drop my satchel, not like he’d tried to make me his lunch. He kept acting like maybe he’d negotiate with me eventually, that was the worst. He was even going to take my jewelry.” She pointed to her necklaces which were sort of haphazardly tied together around her neck. This detail surprised Maui, though.

“Why _didn’t_ he take them?”

“Well… I guess he did take them, sort of. Took ‘em off me, told me he was gonna keep ‘em, but I grabbed them when I was escaping.”

Maui immediately let out a pretty loud laugh at that. “Oh man…” He added, a hand on his knee as if he had to hold himself up, “That’s incredible. That’s even better than you getting him to not eat you.”

Tally raised her eyebrows.

“I mean… I’m glad he didn’t eat you, I’d have a lot of explaining to do to Moana, but bringing shiny things into his den and _leaving_ with them? That is incredible. He must be _so_ upset. Good work, Blondie. Ten outta’ ten.”

It seemed like she couldn’t help but smile, and sort of look off the side of the boat.

“I didn’t get a single goddamn thing out of it, I really didn’t want to leave him some prize for all the shit he spun.” She paused for a moment. “You’ve known him for a long time, right?”

Maui shrugged. “Yeah… Yeah.”

“Why is he… _like_ that?”

“An ass?”

“No, like… He said some stuff in French, he knew about a palace in England, he was even kinda’ gentlemanly. Sort of. But I‘ave never heard of any giant crab tourist-ing in Europe. I mean, we’re out at sea a lot, but you’d think that’d be big enough news for us to hear about.”

“Ah.” Maui gave a slight nod, “Well, you know how they say ‘you are what you eat’?”

She nodded slowly, her eyes widening. For good reason.

“For Tamatoa, that’s literal. He eats stuff… people… things… and he gets their qualities, sometimes. If he wants to, I guess.”

“Jesus H. Christ.” She breathed out through her mouth. Maui forgave the exclamation, but shared the sentiment, and they both turned back to their duties as Motunui came into view.

After a pause she added, “Lucky guy.”

This made Maui genuinely laugh. Maybe these particular pirates weren’t going to be the worst thing to happen to the region.

 

* * *

 

“A giant crab? Really?” Moana heard the man, Alvaro challenge his crewmate as she approached. “Drinking saltwater again, are you?”

“Shut up.” Tallulah’s voice was intensely irritated, but seemed sort of distracted and running her hand across the raised shape of stitches on her side. This caused Moana to balance her basket on her hip and quicken her pace so she could gently hit the pirate girl on the shoulder.

“Stop that.” She scolded down at the girl sitting without much grace on the white sand, leaning on a makeshift bench before taking a seat on it. “If you touch it too much, it won’t heal.”

She’d come with a basket of some leftovers from meals that would otherwise spoil from the village, and she probably shouldn’t have been surprised by how all three ambushed her to grab the food and tear into it indiscriminately, almost pushing her off the back of the bench, but she was nonetheless. They fought over a few of the pieces like puppies, and she couldn’t help but think there was something charming about that, even if their manners were just as bad, shoving the food in their faces without any interest in savoring what they’d grabbed after they had returned to their seats.

She gazed down at Tallulah, who paused in her eating to give her a sheepish grin. “Sorry.” She said, her mouth full, and Moana chuckled.

“Guess you guys were hungry.”

After a moment, the child, Jacob, began to to sit up straighter, and Moana turned to him with interest.

“Miss Waialiki?”

She shook her head and gave him a warm smile.

“You can call me Moana, Jacob.”

Moana had told them all she’d rather they call her by her first name, but she could understand the desire for formality, even if it was weird for her. Alvaro seemed to have finally become comfortable with it, and she was pretty sure Tally was warming up to her too, but the child, Jacob, despite Moana feeling that he was probably the most kind hearted and friendly of the three, still didn’t seem willing to.

He wasn’t the most talkative of the crew, but she liked him quite a bit, and she also couldn’t help but feel that the adults around him really didn’t understand the emotional needs of a child, as much as maybe they cared about him. Moana was a busy woman, but whenever she interacted with Jacob she tried to encourage some kind of whimsy or simplicity in him; and he was almost always receptive.

“Um…” He fidgeted, “I’m just wondering… Is Tally telling the truth? Is that really what’s down, under there?” He pointed to the ground, and Moana wondered how Tally had described her trip to Lalotai that had made it seem as though Tamatoa lived right under their feet. Which, thankfully, he didn’t. But this didn’t seem to be Jacob’s worry, more or less he seemed excited by the idea, and hoping Moana would verify Tally’s story.

“You don’t trust your friend?” Moana gestured to the pirate girl at her feet, sort of cheekily, but despite the good humor of the question she did not expect the eruption of laughter that came from the direction of the both of boys.

Tally didn’t laugh, however, and just continued to eat, scowling at her crewmates from where she sat. Moana looked from the boys to her and back again, waiting for some kind of explanation.

“Tally’s a good liar.” Jacob noted, and Moana looked down skeptically at the girl pirate, who smiled and shrugged, confirming their accusation with a distinct lack of pride or responsibility, and Moana rolled her eyes.

“I see.” She said, turning back to the boys, “Well yes, she’s telling the truth. Er, this time. Tamatoa is quite the collector, and yes, he is also a giant talking crab.”

Jacob’s eyes seemed to light up at this, and Alvaro just continued to eat, raising his eyebrows as if to simply go, _well, you don’t say._

Moana adjusted herself to sit more comfortably on the bench, and gazed down at Tally’s wound with a sigh.

“He is also a monster. I don’t know why I thought you’d actually get anywhere with him. He’s not known for being a reasonable one. Maybe I should have sent Maui down there with you, or something.”

“I don’t think so, Princess.”

The four of them looked up to see the demigod making his own way toward the group. To Moana he was a calming presence, but the three pirates surrounding her all seemed to stir in excitement, which she supposed she couldn’t blame them for - she only hoped their awe in him wouldn’t inflate Maui’s ego _too_ much. If Moana had known Maui was on his way, she wouldn’t have said that, she knew he wouldn’t be happy to hear it, and as he came to sit down next to her, she could almost see him think as he quickly gathered his defense.

“I don’t know why you thought he’d help them out either.” Maui added, “Just because we’re not trying to kill each other anymore doesn’t mean he’s any less… Tamatoa.”

Moana sighed. He was right. And in a way, she was kind of happy he hadn’t just handed her what they wanted, because otherwise they’d be on their way now. They were a bit of a nuisance, sure, and the villagers were suspicious of them with good reason, but Moana had a lot of questions for them. They were sort of funny. Loud and eccentric like characters in a play. As long as they didn’t actually disrupt the lives of the islanders or do any kind of permanent damage, she was enjoying having them here.

She still wished the giant crab hadn’t wounded the girl the way he did, but she supposed what was going to happen was going to happen. It was the pirates’ choice after all. Moana couldn’t really give them too much sympathy, from what she could tell from their stories and the way they conducted themselves, they got themselves into their own trouble most of the time, and Moana would always put her own people first. That didn’t mean she was happy to see anyone get hurt, though.

“Seems like she handled herself okay, though.” Maui added, which was sort of a surprise to Moana. Briefly she watched Tally give Maui a grateful look, and she couldn’t help but be grateful herself. Things were much easier when people were getting along. Now she was very curious, though. She had become sort of contemplative, chewing quietly as she sat on the sand. As long as she’d been on the island, Tallulah seemed to have something to say about everything, so the silence was strange. Moana was about to ask about it, but Tally’s talkativeness finally broke through and saved her the trouble.

“Whatever. It was worth it.”

That was a surprise. It seemed like her pirate friends were pretty confused by this, but nowhere near as confused as she was. She looked to Maui who she knew had engaged in a conversation with Tally on their return trip, but he shrugged, apparently just as lost. In their look, they shared a thought - _crazy? Sunstroke? Cabin fever?_ To find out for sure, they both turned toward her.

“But… you didn’t get your talisman.” Moana raised her finger to correct her, as if maybe she’d forgotten that the mission was ultimately a failure.

“I know.” She didn’t look up to see their incredulous expressions, instead she stared at her food and picked at it as if she wasn’t confident in the statement. “But you know… I’ve been to worse parties.” She ended in a flippant witticism, but it didn’t do anything to actually satisfy the curiosity of any of them.

After a brief moment of silence, Moana spoke up. “So… what _did_ happen, exactly?”

Tally seemed to finally realize they were all looking at her in disbelief, and she looked cornered for a moment before speaking again.

“Nothing! I mean…” She trailed off. “Nothing _interesting_ . I went down there, he was like…” She held up her hands like pincers and did a little Tamatoa impression, “ _Arrgh you’re an intruder, I’m gonna eat you now._ ”

Moana stifled her own laugh. Sounded accurate. “But he _didn’t_ eat you.” She reminded her.

“Well I told him that I was Captain Cutter’s daughter.” This seemed to make the other pirates smile again, but Moana and Maui just looked at each other, both curious again.

“Why did that stop him?” It was Maui’s turn to ask.

“Because I… said he’d send people looking for me if I didn’t come back, and he’d be in trouble.”

The pirates across the circle finally burst out laughing. “She’s a _great_ liar.” Alvaro corrected Jacob’s earlier analysis, and Moana watched Tally throw a fruit rind at him.

“ _Anyway,_ ” She continued, “I just asked him about the cross. He said he had it, but he wouldn’t give it to me, and then he said he wouldn’t let me leave until… I don’t know. Something. But I’m no-one’s prisoner.” She grumbled and threw some more fruit rinds on the ground in front of her. Moana smiled at this, sort of proud of her. “So I got out of there. That’s it.”

“But it was ‘worth it’?” Maui asked with air quotes.

Tally looked up at them, from one face to another as if that was obvious.

“Well… yeah.” She blinked, “He was… I mean… Other than all the ways it went wrong, he was fun to talk to. He had a lot to say.”

“Like what?” Alvaro asked, mouth full again.

 

* * *

 

“Just… about his treasure! It’s like, from all over the world. You guys can’t even imagine it.” She pointed with accusation at her two crewmates. “He… knew a little about the cross, and…” She was struggling to come up with some positive details of the interaction other than all the stuff he’d gotten her to say, and all the fun she’d had seeing his reactions. She hadn’t really thought about it until now, but for some reason she didn’t want to share that part. Being able to say she talked herself out of a confrontation with a monster should be a good brag. But for some reason she couldn’t bring herself to mention it. “I mean…” She improvised, “I got to meet a giant talking crab with a big gold pile on his back. The wound’ll go away, but I got that story forever,” She turned to her crewmates, speaking pointedly to the two of them again, “And I can tell it at **_every_** _. single. tavern_ we go to.” Ending with sticking her tongue out at them in victory. “So there.”

 

* * *

 

“Fair enough.” Maui shrugged. The value of a good story did not escape him.

“But…” Jacob spoke up again, “What are we gonna do now? Don’t we need the cross?”

“If we want to leave,” Tally let out a long sigh, “Yeah.”

Moana stood up from the bench, leaving the basket on the ground, and they all looked at her in surprise. “It’s late.” She explained, and the three pirates looked at her as if she was crazy. “...For _me_.” She added. “I’ve gotta get back to the village, but we can figure this out tomorrow. I have my doubts that Tamatoa is going to suddenly decide to hand over the talisman to anyone else in the meantime.”

The pirates were just a little too quick to agree, happy to let it all go for the night, and Moana couldn’t help but be just a little charmed by their simplicity again. Puppies indeed.

After exchanging some good nights, and sharing some warnings about nighttime on the island (for maybe the twentieth time since they’d arrived) she and Maui both headed back toward the village. When they were far enough away that she could barely make out their starting a fire and pulling out playing cards, she turned to Maui.

“That was weird.” She noted.

“I mean, we did just send a woman pirate seer down into the realm of the monsters to try and get a magic talisman from a giant talking coconut crab.” He offered, “If you have an idea about what the _normal_ outcome of that would be, I’d love to hear it.”

“Okay, okay.” She conceded, but continued to contemplate as they walked, “I guess I’m just surprised that it balanced out for her.”

“She’s a pirate, he’s got a cave full of treasure, it doesn’t seem that strange to me.” He paused, “Did you really think he would give her the piece?”

“I mean… yeah, kind of. I know he’s a monster but… I guess I thought there was a chance that she would… say the right thing? Appeal to his sensitive side? He’s been friendly with us lately, I thought maybe he’d be a little less quick to just,” As they walked, she put her hands out in front of her as if setting the scene, then made a disgusted face “ _Eat_ her.”

“You’ve got a big heart, Princess.” Maui grinned, putting a hand on her head and messing up her hair, just a little. She protested, but giggled, and Maui put the arm around her shoulders instead. She leaned against him comfortably and sighed.

“I guess I was wrong.”

To Moana’s surprise, Maui didn’t immediately agree.

“Hmm…” He began, “I don’t know. She’s back in one piece isn’t she? I mean, mostly.”

“But she didn’t get the talisman they’re looking for. That was _kind of_ the whole point.”

“All I’m saying is that I’ve known Tamatoa for a long time. If she’s back, and she has even **one** good thing to say about that crazy crab, _something_ went right.”

“You think?” She looked up at him with a real mixture of surprise and hope.

“Yeah kid, I do. The game’s not over yet, and you made a pretty good first move, if I do say so myself.”

She smiled up at him. He would probably never know just how much he could settle her nerves with a comment like that. She had told herself she wouldn’t feel defeated for them, it was a major courtesy of her to even help them find Lalotai, and there was absolutely nothing she owed them. She had her own people to take care of, and plenty of things on her plate, but she couldn’t help it. She was happy to have this morale boost on their behalf. With a sigh of relief and just a little bit of pride, she leaned into Maui’s side, letting all the cares of the day slip away and drop somewhere out in the ocean.

“But maybe next time I gotta wait like four hours for one of your little pirate buddies, you can at least send me with some reading material, huh?”

They had to stifle their laughter as they approached the sleeping village.


	5. A Shot Across The Bow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ✧･:*♥･:*♡~crab romance~♡*:･♥*:･✧

Maui was happy the pirates were here for one particular reason: They gave him a reason to stay on Motunui for a little while, spend some time with Moana. Of course, his fantasy of what that was going to be like - him guiding her through the murky waters of interaction with pirates, getting to watch her make subsequent decisions for her village, being right there when he needed her - wasn’t exactly the reality. The pirates were weird, not as aggressive as he thought they would be, and while his insight was definitely invaluable, it was more work than it was excitement. He didn’t regret joining up, Moana’s grateful smile was worth all he’d been doing, but he didn’t think he’d be toting the pirates around the ocean instead of back on the island with her.

They decided it was Alvaro’s turn to take his own little trip to Lalotai, but this was Maui’s second trip, and he was pretty bored of it already. Despite the lack of excitement that had sort of accompanied the first trip, Maui found that he didn’t mind his company either. He was pretty sure he was hungover, maybe still a little drunk, but pirates would be pirates, and he was a friendly guy. He seemed a little less… offbeat than Tallulah had been. But also, maybe a little too relaxed for a guy getting ferried to the realm of monsters. Still, he pulled his own weight (with some staggering) and he had a few good stories of his own. Land-side antics, mostly. What he’d gotten up to in Portugal and Spain when he was a teenager. Like Tallulah, he’d been a criminal as long as he could grab a coin, and he was slightly annoyed at himself for starting to not dislike the pirates on principle anymore. They were what they were. However, even if he was getting to kind of like them, he also trusted them even less. If this was who they were, if they were to take advantage of the islanders or do major damage, they might not even be aware until it was too late. If they hadn’t actually chosen the direction of piracy, that meant they didn’t have moral compasses either.

It was a very calm day at sea. Not breezy like it had been when he’d delivered Tallulah. It had been a few days, and Maui hadn’t been sure they were even going to try again until Moana approached Maui with Alvaro in tow with an apologetic smile, and yes, some reading material. Today was as nice a day as any to do it though, and it seemed like _way_ too calm a day to be actually going back to the Lalotai entrance, and just a little bit too hot to look forward to climbing the tower, and definitely too sunny to send anyone to visit Tamatoa again.

Or at least, that had been the plan. As they approached the short beach around the Lalotai entrance they noticed a cluster of dark green and brown around the edge of it. Neither of the men could guess from a distance, but when they got close enough they saw that the beach was lined with glass bottles, of all different shapes and sizes. They made no conversation as they landed the boat in the sand, just confused and staring at the scene.

Alvaro sort of staggered aimlessly on the sand, just looking at the bottles, bobbing gently in the water as waves maintained keeping them pushed against the edge of the island.

Maui himself approached the edge of the water and reached down to tentatively grab the largest, most intricate bottle, and turned it over in his hands a few times, not really sure if he was suspicious of it or not.

“Hell is all this?” Alvaro grumbled, sticking is foot in the wet sand and nudging one of the bottles as if worried it would wake up and bite him. Maui rolled his eyes.

“Maybe we’ll find out if we… _open the bottles?_ ” He retaliated, holding up the bottle to display it sarcastically to the pirate.

“Alright, alright!” Alvaro waved his hand to dismiss the question. He squinted into the sun tiredly before apparently joining Maui, picking up another bottle on the beach at random.

Both of them found the same thing, nothing but thick pieces of paper stuffed into each.

After a moment of silence, Alvaro turned to Maui with a big grin. “Bottled notes, aye?” Maui wasn’t sure what there was to smile about, the observation wasn’t exactly helpful.

“Wonder where they came from.” Alvaro inspected the outside of the bottle for an answer, but Maui took the paper from within the large decorative bottle and unrolled it, unfolded it, and unrolled it some more until he had a very large wrinkled piece of paper in his hands. He noted that what he was looking at was a very large piece of paper that had been very deftly rolled, folded, and densely packed into the bottle. Despite its size, it only had a short phrase on it.

 

**_MA SOURIS, APOLOGIES UPON APOLOGIES._ **

 

Oh _no_. Maui didn’t even want to open another one, but for investigation purposes he dropped the paper in his hands and reached down to open another without saying a word to Alvaro, already wincing at what he would find. Naturally, another abnormally large piece of paper with only a few words written.

 

**_AND THOUGH MY RADIANCE MAY BE BLINDING,_ **

 

Luckily, _thankfully_ , it was not the next line in whatever this was supposed to be. He supposed they could open them all, put them in order, find out what they said, but if the idea of putting them all back into dry containers wasn’t unappealing enough, he really, **_really_ ** did not want to read any more of them.

He was just trying to process the awkwardness of this when Alvaro spoke up.

“What… is all’a this?” He held another piece in his hands and was looking at it as if it was a puzzle in its own right. “I don’t get it.” He let his arms fall to look straight at Maui for answers.

Maui wished he _didn’t_ have the answer, and rolled his eyes, putting a hand over his entire face for a moment in continued frustration, twice so at Alvaro’s ignorance.

“They’re for Tallulah.” He told him, growling with exasperation.

“What? Why would they… How do you know?”

“I just _do_ , okay?”

Alvaro looked the scattered bottles over again, the waves still pushing them against the shoreline as if to purposefully make Maui feel even more sick. “I guess we should get them to her then, ey?” He offered, and Maui could hear in his voice that he was grasping at the idea of not having to go into Lalotai, as if that was still the plan. Instead of explaining it, Maui just reached down to scoop up a bunch of them into his arms at once.

“I guess we should.” He agreed with the most unwilling voice he could muster and dumped them onto the boat with purposeful carelessness.

When they returned unharmed, Moana approached the incoming boat with a smile.

“That was so fast!” She grinned, “Did you find the talisman? Tell me you did.”

Her face fell when she saw Maui’s beleaguered look, a complete lack of positivity in his face.

“Nope.” Maui replied carelessly as he stepped off the boat. “But we found _these._ ”

He took the strap of the, now very stretched out, sack off his shoulder and moved it down to where Moana could see the contents, holding it open for her.

She looked at them in utter confusion, reaching into the bag and pulling out one of them curiously. “What… What are they?” She turned it over in her hands, and pushed some hair behind her ear before looking up again to Maui’s face for answers.

“You know, that is a very good question.” He sighed, instantly more relaxed in Moana’s company. As weird a position as this find put him in, he was glad to have a reason to come back right away. “ _Pathetic_ , is what they are, I’d say.”

Moana opened one, unfolded the paper carefully, and looked at it with similar confusion to what he’d seen from Alvaro. Though when Alvaro looked at the contents his expression was that of a lack of comprehension. He could practically see Moana thinking, trying to make sense of it as her eyes darted around the large paper piece, holding it open like a scroll.

After a moment of letting her try to come to her own conclusion, Maui put his hand on hers, encouraging her to lower the paper and look at him instead.

“They’re for _Tallulah_.” He told her, his voice casual as if that would answer all her questions; but of course, it didn’t, and she just looked at Maui, still shocked.

After handing the bag to Moana completely, with semi-subtlety he raised his arms until his hands were on either side of his face, turned his head toward Moana with a look of exaggerated silent suggestion, and straightened his hands out to make a pinching motion in the air.

He watched Moana’s eyes grow wide and her hand fly up to her mouth.

 _“ No. ”_ She finally said, shock taking her over completely. He nodded, and she began looking back and forth between the contents of the bag and the face of the demigod. “These are from Tamatoa?!”

It was this moment Alvaro also seemed to finally find his way off the boat and approaching in their direction. He stretched with a yawn as he came closer, and as he relaxed the rest of his body he furrowed his brow. “The crab?” He asked.

“The crab.” Maui affirmed.

“Why…?” Alvaro didn’t seem to be putting two and two together, which Maui was slightly grateful for. Not worrying too much about the increasingly sleepy pirate behind him, he turned back to Moana who was still looking at the contents of the bag intently.

“It’s just bottles all the way down, kid.” He teased, but it got her to look at him again, even if she still seemed stunned.

“Should we give them to her?”

Maui hadn’t even considered not giving them to her. “Since they’re definitely for her, I’d say yes.”

“I mean…” Moana shook her head, “Shouldn’t we maybe read all them ourselves first? What if it’s some kind of ransom or elaborate threat or…” Maui put his hand over the top of the sack to get her attention again.

“Okay, number one,” He held up one finger, “He wrote these for her, and it’s really not our place to violate their privacy, right?” Moana didn’t seem to buy that one, but Maui continued, second finger up. “Two, I can think of a million other things I’d rather do than read Tamatoa’s _dissertation_ .” This one just made her roll her eyes. “And three,” Third finger went up, “Princess, I promise, it’s _not_ that kind of message.”

 

* * *

 

 

Tally had spent the first half of the morning with her father on their ship, trying to keep herself busy after Maui and Alvaro had departed. Unfortunately there really wasn’t that much to do. He was as antisocial and upbeat as always, fussing over books, and the only thing he really seemed to want her for was to tell her about another magic artifact he was interested in. Usually she would humor him, kind of her duty as a daughter, but today she just couldn’t do it. She was just too distracted, the idea of sitting down and trying to pay attention to even a single anecdote made her lose her appetite for breakfast.

So instead she was sitting on a cool boulder under the shade of a line of trees, looking out at the beach a little closer to the village than the one Maui and Alvaro had left from. She just wanted to escape that particular view for a bit. She simply couldn’t stop thinking about what Alvaro and Tamatoa were talking about right now. It was possible they hadn’t actually gotten to talking at all, but based on her own experience, that seemed pretty unlikely.

Her thoughts were pretty demanding of her attention probably because she was worried about Alvaro’s safety, right? After all, Tamatoa had _liked_ her. If he didn’t show any remorse for hurting her, surely Alvaro was in twice as much danger. Yeah, Alvaro was more obliging than she was, he was known for being friendly, but that wasn’t the kind of person Tamatoa would appreciate anyway. Probably. Maybe. Not that she really knew, of course. It was just the impression she got.

In that line of thought, she had to regret not going back herself. Not because she was jealous of Alvaro who was inevitably devaluing her own experience by going there as if he could be anything like her, like they were just pawns to toss at the giant crab to whittle away at his will to hold onto the cross; when Tally was pretty sure their talk had been just a little more personal than that would imply. Definitely not because of that. Because she had met Tamatoa first, and she’d left with her life. If Alvaro was to get hurt worse than she had been, or killed, it would be her fault for letting him leave, her fault for failing in her own attempt. Alvaro might have been sneakier than her or stronger than her, but surely if he failed in those approaches, Tamatoa would be a lot less merciful toward him than he had been toward her. Not that he’d been particularly merciful toward her, she had to remind herself that she had to actually escape him, but if he acted with hostility toward someone he liked, there wasn’t that much hope for Alvaro, was there?

...Or maybe Tamatoa was treating Alvaro the same way he had treated her. She didn’t like that idea. And she had no idea if maybe the way he had talked to her was how he talked to everyone, and she just hadn’t picked up on it. Well, for now she was content to assume that wasn’t true. Until Alvaro came back and told her to her face that Tamatoa had also given him a French pet name, she wasn’t going to let it go. Because if it was the same for Alvaro, her experience wouldn’t be unique anymore, she wouldn’t be able to be the one to tell it as a tale around the lamplight, she’d always have Alvaro chiming in. Yeah, that was definitely the reason. He was moving in on her adventure. Not cool. She didn’t even really want the stupid cross. They could have just stayed on the island a little longer until she felt it was a good time to go back and try again, instead of immediately just sending another crewmate down there to bully the robber crab.

Not that she was worried about Tamatoa. Obviously. But she was worried that if he was backed into a corner he would use their conversation as ammunition somehow. Maybe he’d tell Alvaro about all the ways she’d complimented him, and… demoralize him with how weak she had been, succumbing to his requests the way she had. Not that she’d done anything wrong, obviously, but Tamatoa was kinda clever, he could probably get Alvaro to take it the wrong way. Not that there was a wrong way to take it. Not that she cared if there was, since… she didn’t even really want the stupid cross.

The possibilities of what could be happening in Lalotai made her head spin.

So when Maui showed up in front of her with a big bag, she was _very_ confused. Had it really been that simple? It had been much too short a time period between when they left and now that any conversation had actually been had. Maybe Alvaro really had somehow found it while Tamatoa was unaware. That would be pretty amazing. Though she didn’t love the idea of Tamatoa waking up only to realize he’d been robbed rather than negotiated with, since it was his after all. Well, no, it wasn’t really _his_ his. It had belonged to the San Pedro. But he would probably still be kinda bummed out about it.

“Did you get the cross?” She asked as the demigod approached.

“Nope.” Maui answered in a strangely casual way, not like someone who had to report a mission failure. “Never even got your boatswain through the door.”

“Oh, um… That’s too bad.” She replied, trying to sound sincere. “Why not?”

“Well,” Maui began, holding up the bag, “We found _these._ ” and he dumped the contents out onto the ground at her feet.

“What are they?” She asked, stunned.

“Maybe you should open them and find out.” Maui offered, “Since they’re for you.”

Tally looked up at him with wide eyes, and he handed over the largest, most intricate bottle. “You should probably start with this one.” She took it with a delicate hand, completely unsure of what she was holding as she brought it to her lap.

Maui didn’t leave, he stood and watched her open the bottle and read the first line, and he was not surprised when he saw her shrink behind the roll, her cheeks and ears turning red.

“I think the rest of them are gonna be the rest of the pieces of the message. You know, you just gotta put ‘em in order.”

“Er… Thanks.” She squeaked, expecting him to leave her to that task. However, Maui wasn’t going anywhere. After she realized this, she peeked out at him from the edge of the paper, embarrassed as all hell.

“Alright, let’s hear it. What’s the deal.” He put his hand on his hip, waiting for something.

“What do you mean?” She asked, still pretty well hidden behind the note.

“I knew there was a hole in your story when you told it to your friends at dinner last night… Listen, Blondie, I’ve been around for a long time.” He started, and she put down the paper a little, listening to him. “No judgments, well…” He stopped himself. “Maybe a _few_ judgments, but just level with me here. You and crab-cake…” He held up his hands toward her for her to mentally fill in the blanks. “...You know…”

“What?! No!” She let the note drop to put her arms out in a big X. “No! I didn’t! _We_ didn’t…I-I swear!”

“Huh.” Maui seemed quick to believe her, to Tally’s great relief. “I was afraid of that.”

“What?!” Tally demanded. “You were expecting me to…”

“Ah, sorry, that’s not what I meant. He’s had a little bit of a… setback recently, and I didn’t think it hit him all that hard, Tamatoa is one stubborn crab, pride-wise. But sending a love letter to a foreign pirate girl he only spent a few hours with… Maybe it’s a cry for help or something.”

She was sort of offended, but tried to put it past her. Instead, she asked quietly, “You read it?”

“No way,” He chuckled, and put up his hands, indicating he’d rather stay away, “We opened a few bottles to figure out what it was, nothing more. Whatever steamy details are in this crazy essay are between you and Tamatoa.”

“I told you, we didn’t-!” She protested, her voice cracking.

“I’m just messing with you, Blondie. Though you haven’t read the others yet… You never know.”

She seemed to lose her will to be frustrated, and just stared at the bottles again in disbelief as they laid out in front of her. Maui watched her look at the ground blankly and apparently decided now was the time to leave her alone. He turned to walk away, and was surprised to hear her speak up again from behind him.

“We just… talked. I gave him a bunch of compliments, okay? _That_ ’s the hole in the story. I-I was just trying to get him to negotiate with me for the cross!”

There was a split second before Maui began laughing, louder than she’d seen him since she’d been here, and Tally looked up at him in alarm.

“Oh **_gods_ ** .” Maui managed in between breaths, leaning on his knees before he stopped. “Well that makes a _lot_ more sense!” He sighed, the look of amusement on his face was still very present. With one hand on his hip and the other pointing at her, he grinned in a way that did anything but disarm Tally.

“ **_Bad move,_ ** Blondie. _Bad move._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the full note is not as sweet as you think, he apologizes for hurting her but then he basically spends the rest of the time writing about how great he is


	6. Squared Away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> how do i describe this. pirate girl and robber crab bond over jewelery.  
> 

Tally leaned against the outside wall of the giant cave, smoothing out her skirt out of nervous habit, and trying not to have a panic attack. Meeting Tamatoa for the first time was one adrenaline rush to the other. Maybe some other chemicals mixed in there, but mostly adrenaline. When she first arrived she was on edge, then she was terrified, then she was in pain, then she was angry, then she was frustrated, then terrified again, then angry again and trying to save her own life. It had been quite a turbulent ride for her blood. There was a part in there where she felt kind of happy, appreciated, valued, but even during that time fear was interlaced. Fear had been interlaced throughout the whole endeavor.

For some reason, when her mind had wandered back to the encounter (and fine, ‘wandered’ might be an understatement, but she’d been to the realm of monsters, who wouldn’t keep it on their mind afterwards?) it was easy to forgive the transgressions that Tamatoa had committed. The injury, the threats, objectively they hadn’t been that bad. She’d had the wind knocked out of her before, she’s had broken limbs, deep flesh wounds, the works. Glossing over that stuff wasn’t out of character for her. But she’d never met a giant monster crab before Motunui, and she hadn’t done herself any favors by letting that detail fizzle into irrelevance in her memory. Just because he hadn’t completely mutilated her, or worse, didn’t mean it wasn’t a possibility. She hadn’t realized how dreamlike it had become in her mind in the few days that had passed.

But now that she was back in Lalotai, the feelings came flooding back, and with all new, really shitty ones. Now she didn’t suspect the monster in the cave was dangerous, she _knew_ he was. She didn’t worry she wouldn’t find Tucker’s Cross, she _knew_ Tamatoa would withhold it. One would think these experiences would have prepared her, but for some reason the more that people had insisted Tamatoa was nothing but bad, the more she had turned the tone of the encounter in a positive direction in her mind, maybe just out of a feeling of pure defiance rather than having any desire to actually defend Tamatoa. Irrationally, she couldn’t say with certainty there was none of that in her intent, but when you live a life of crime and deceit, you learn to come to your own conclusions.

Yes, there had been some good when last she was here, but there had been _much_ more bad, and standing outside Tamatoa’s lair, actually thinking about putting herself in that situation again was making her heart race twice as fast.

Of course, she also wouldn’t be here if she didn’t want to be. Despite all the fear hitting her she had been unprepared for, she was still excited to talk to him again. No matter what Maui thought about them, or how her crewmates might have their own prejudices, Tally was always dragged along by her own emotions above all other forces. She didn’t think about how foolish it was, didn’t think about how stupid and dangerous it was, all she knew is that having the undivided attention of a giant man-eating coconut crab was pretty great for her ego. He was terrifying, she was panicking, and she was going in with a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

She peeked in slowly, finding the fact that the amount of treasure was now familiar to her to be a very odd sensation. Slowly she took one step in.

“...Tamatoa?”

He was awake, sitting on the ground and seemed to perk up when she spoke, but it took him a moment before he located the source of the noise. Once his gaze found the pirate girl lingering at the entrance to his cave, a smile broke out on his face, and he stood up to approach her.

“You came back!” He greeted her and despite sounding cheery as she had heard it before, his voice didn’t have the same… flippancy. Maybe she was imagining it, but she had expected him to childishly act as if nothing had happened, as if all was forgiven, as evidenced by her presence alone; but interestingly, there was a gratefulness in his voice that replaced the entitlement she remembered. He looked to her for response, and she found herself kind of stunned. She had definitely expected a bombardment of… something. Smugness or comedy or, at the very least, talkativeness. She really hadn’t expected to be looked at as if she was an equal.

“Yeah.” She admitted, sighing, a sort of defeated smile on her face. “I guess I wanted to make sure I didn’t dream you.”

“Really? You thought you could dream up all _this?_ ” He gestured to himself, and the cave surrounding. “Or are beautiful crabs _usually_ the subject of your little pirate dreams?”

“Not until recently.” She grinned, and he blinked at her, stunned. He set her up for that one; and despite the way he seemed to place little value in ‘little pirate dreams’, he seemed to be pretty affected by the statement and it was a moment before he spoke again. “I knew I was right about you.” He sort of snuggled down into the sand, and though he was still looking down at her from high enough she had to strain, she could definitely feel the comfortable intent. She took his lead and sort of sat down in the sand in front of him, a little awkward as she felt him watch her do it, but soon she was sitting cross-legged, back to the cave wall, and the absurdity of sitting so casually alongside Tamatoa didn’t escape her, but she was also surprised at how comfortable she felt.

To her own disappointment, in fact. She wasn’t used to being so unsure about what to feel, and her emotion was pulling her into relaxation, but sailor’s judgement was in the front of her mind, reminding her that sometimes the calmest weather indicated the approach of the biggest storm. Overestimating his understanding was her mistake last time. On top of this unease, as she had begun to sit on the ground, the items hanging off her belt were lying sideways on the ground, and she watched Tamatoa’s smile fall almost instantly as he noticed that this time she was carrying a whole cutlass on her hip. She looked to him in a short moment of tense silence, waiting for him to comment on it, but to her continued surprise, he didn’t. It looked as though he instead forced himself to ignore it, and turned his attention back to her face. Whether he was pretending he hadn’t seen it, or trying to act like it didn’t bother him, she knew both were not quite right. She cleared her throat to get his attention again, with a smile.

“I liked your note.” She let him know, and his face broke out in a toothy smile. It seemed like this admission made up for the awkwardness of the presence of her weapon, and she was grateful. “How clever was that?” He seemed to ask and answer at the same time “I can’t get out of Lalotai, but I sent the bottles up the geyser. I cheated the system, basically.” He ended proudly, then thought for a moment.

“So, you were coming back to see me again and found the bottles on the beach, right? Or did the ocean just decide to help me out this time, and they found you all on their own?” He asked, excited to hear the answer.

“Er… No. Alvaro, um, a crewmate of mine...” She wasn’t sure if she should mention Maui, but Tamatoa was clearly trying to find that connection they’d briefly had last time - or an even better one, considering how cautious he was being this time around. And Tally wouldn’t be down here if she didn’t want that too. She decided to take a risk with some honesty.

“Maui brought him,” and as expected, Tamatoa visibly reacted to his name, though she couldn’t place in exactly what way. “He opened the gate for me last time.” She admitted. “He was going to open it for Alvaro, we sent him to negotiate with you, since I’d failed.” She paused, “Or maybe just… steal it from you?” She gave a sheepish shrug.

In what was seemed to be his first genuine moment of confidence since she’d come back, he lowered his eyelids to give her a sort of scolding, bemused look. Maybe as judgement for trying to steal from him… or maybe as judgement for sending her crewmate when she had some first hand experience with the way he treated thieves. Either way, Alvaro hadn’t made it at all, and she was even more grateful for that now.

“They found them, and brought them back.”

“Does that mean Maui read it?!” He asked, eyes wide and suddenly frantic, “I mean, that was not for him, he’s supposed to be a hero right? Reading someone else’s mail… That’s not his style, is it?”

“No, not really.” She shook her head, and put out her hands, quickly trying to reassure him. “He said he just opened enough to figure out what they were, he didn’t, like, _read_ it.”

Tamatoa seemed to take a deep breath with exaggerated relief, but she quirked an eyebrow.

“Why wouldn’t you want him to see it? It was... nice.” She tried not to sound like she was admitting something, just stating facts.

He seemed to be sort of thinking before turning back to her, sort of a tired look on his face, which was one she hadn’t seen before. As if he was being candid with her easily, rather than forcing himself to, like she had assumed.

“I’d really rather he not know _every single thing_ about me.” He paused, then looked at her with a sort of scrutinizing gaze, but just for a moment. “If you could help me with that topside, babe, I’d really appreciate it.”

“Yessir.” She grinned. He smiled back, but just a little, like getting her simple agreement was more than he’d asked for.

“So what does this say about you? That you’re a pretty decent poet yourself? Too sentimental for such a formidable presence, is it?” She wasn’t really sure how a sweet message translated into ‘weakness’, but then, she also wasn’t sure why she had wanted to keep their previous conversation from her crewmates either. An ego is an elusive thing, she supposed.

She debated telling him what Maui had accused them of, but ultimately decided that was maybe a little _too_ much honesty for today. She really couldn’t picture any reaction he might have to the news that she wanted to see enough to tell him - whether it was disgust, interest or amusement, not one of the three didn’t put her stomach in knots.

“No, no, he knows I have a _lot_ of talents.” He put a claw to his chest and closed his eyes as he said this in an effort to express some kind of crab sophistication. “But if he thought I was going above and beyond to get a human to come down and see me, I don’t know…”

Tally frowned, and Tamatoa turned his eyes to her for just a moment. “Oh, don’t be like that, babe. Humans live short lives, it’s not your fault, but the investment doesn’t always pay itself back, if you know what I mean.”

She didn’t, but she rolled her eyes and leaned back on her hands. “Can we just pretend I’m going to live forever? How about that.”

Tamatoa blinked at her. “Why? You’re not. _...Are you?”_

“Hmm…” She looked to the left at the wall of the cave, as if debating whether or not to him something, and he watched her with more anticipation than she’d ever seen from him. She let it linger for a moment, her eyes flashing to him once mischievously before turning back and responding casually. “...You never know.”

She hadn’t actually considered that as an option. Pirate lives were either very short or very long (but usually very short) and she was pretty focused on taking care of her father, her plans for continuing to be a pirate after he died or stopped himself were a lot of blanks. She’d met veteran captains that had been alive for almost 400 years, often not even by their own will, but because of some terrible curse they wrought against themselves, and some of those captains were absolute idiots. She’d met cabin boys under eleven years old who died of infection months into piracy who were wiser than she ever hoped to be. The finality of Tamatoa’s presented options was unusual to her, and despite being the crew diviner when necessary, seeing into the future was not her prerogative.

Tamatoa just stared at her with a completely lost expression, apparently trying to make sense of what she was implying. Since she wasn’t really implying anything other than wanting to take time as a concept off the table, it was pretty amusing to watch him seem to go back and forth between conclusions - and not come to one or the other. Amusing, and satisfying. It seemed like she had thrown him off it exactly as she hoped. Maybe that misdirection was all she needed to scoot age under the table. With that unanswered, and her unwillingness to answer it, she charged forward.

“What did you want to talk to me about?” She finally asked, leaning back on her hands, preparing to hear whatever he had to say. “You wanted me back so we could talk about _you_ some more, right?”

“Well…” He began in a singsong voice, leaning his head from side to side like he was pretending to make a tough decision, “...If that’s what you _really_ want to do…” He grinned at her. “But if you want to regale me with some _swashbuckling_ tales too,” He teased “I bet you’d paint a really beautiful picture. I don’t get out much, maybe you could sort of be my eyes, babe.”

The shot of warmth that hit her chest was all she needed to be convinced.

They spent some time, talking about piratey things, places she’d been, what was popular now in Europe, being purposefully vague so the author can avoid a historical commitment, loot she was particularly proud of, things she’d seen that were striking enough to stick in her memory, even what other supernatural experiences, hidden places, and sea monsters she’d run into in her time looking for enchanted things in the ocean, which was their crew’s usual prerogative.

As the conversation flew by piece by piece Tamatoa seemed to lose the excessive caution with which he had greeted her, especially when they came across a topic he knew something about; not that he didn’t have an opinion about almost everything - when she’d described trends, locations, people, she was proud that apparently she was setting up the whole scene with words as well as he'd hoped, but with such a vivid picture Tamatoa also seemed to think it was enough for him to make judgments, which was mostly just pretty funny, especially when she felt he was way off base, or intriguing when he made observations she really hadn’t thought of before.

When more specific topics came about, sometimes Tamatoa could connect one of his treasures to what they were talking about. Tally was surprised at herself for being surprised the first time he did, since it seemed so natural. She would have believed that it was cleverness that was the source of the shift in focus, so he could talk about himself some more, and she wouldn’t have minded that, but despite all the bragging he had to do about how he acquired so much of his treasure, he also seemed to have a lot of opinions about them individually. Things to say about where they came from, whether he was more proud of this one or that one. A lot of his favorites were simply stuck to his back rather than just placed with precision, and he actually lifted her up to put here there and get a closer look. When she was up there, he was naturally watching her every move, which Tally felt no offense about - she was a pirate after all, but he was so excited to give his tour that his close watch on her made her very aware of how she was behaving otherwise.

Occasionally, he would bring up that he didn’t know what something was at all, and that never failed to surprise Tally. She wouldn't have expected he would even admit something like that. Sometimes she knew what they were and could tell him - especially weapons, sometimes she couldn’t even begin to guess, and sometimes it seemed like all he needed was a little help to figure it out. Even more surprising, though it probably shouldn’t have been, was how many of the items he’d gotten straight from Lalotai. There were still a lot of obviously human-made pieces she couldn’t place, but some of the larger, stranger things started to make some kind of sense as he described which monsters he’d taken them from. Pieces made by monsters themselves, she hadn't even really considered that as a possibility. Most sea monsters she’d come across, sapient or not, had lived in solitude, and in Tamatoa’s cave it was easy to think he was one of them; but he had pretty thorough dossiers of the monsters he’d stolen from, even though there didn’t seem to be a single one he spoke about with any kind of respect either. Apparently he was under threat of attack every day because of his misdeeds, but the threat was minimal because of his size and strength, which Tally couldn’t help but admire.

When he would begin a story and be hesitant to use words like “stolen” or “cheat”, she had to fold her arms and give him an exaggerated look of knowing. In a way she was charmed that he was trying to avoid her seeing him in a negative way, but ultimately _he was talking to a pirate._

And when he was initially hesitant to bring up times he’d eaten humans, she couldn’t help but admit, she’d eaten quite a lot of crabs in her time. With laughter, he seemed pretty content with that answer. Even more content when she’d noted times she’d hurt or killed other pirates, earning her some looks from the crab with expressions she couldn’t really identify, and some much appreciated _‘ma souris’_ es. She still wasn’t sure what it meant. She briefly entertained a thought that it might actually be an insult, and for some reason the idea was only a charming one, it would be a good joke, even at her own expense, but it was clearly ‘my-something’, and that was enough for for her to like hearing it.

It was a strange experience. In a lot of ways, it was familiar, like being on a ship, even if he was motionless, keeping her balance was second nature. When he was impatient waiting for her to finish examining one item before leading her to the next, he’d jostle her with a tilt of his back, to send her in another direction. Sometimes apologetic about it, like it was an impulse, sometimes very adamantly not apologetic at all, and loud about how irritating it was that she was taking so long. Most times she didn’t lose her footing, and she would have bragged about her sea legs if she wasn’t sure he’d put them to the test after she had.

But when sometimes he would look at her with delight as if she had reacted in exactly the right way without intent, or disappointment flashed on his face, the familiarity would fall away. Reminding her that she wasn’t on any ship, that there was indeed a whole living, breathing crab monster right under her feet.

When he finally put her down (with gentleness she tried not to interpret as fondness, since it didn’t really seem that difficult for him to do) and she sat down on the ground again, he eyed her rings and necklaces suspiciously. She rolled her eyes dramatically with an exasperated sigh, and a thoroughly amused smile on her face.

“I came in with these, dummy!” And he looked away as if he hadn’t looked at all, and she laughed. “This is the same jewelry I had last time. Not everyone can carry all their treasure around like, you, you know.” He smiled at that, “Some of us have to pick and choose, aye?”

With that he lowered himself very quickly, and Tally almost jumped until his head came close to her body, eyestalks looking carefully over her jewelry with a little more discrimination than he had when he’d tried to take them from her.

“Why these, then?” He asked. “You have other treasure, but you only wear these, what’s so special about the ones you've got on?”

She had to laugh, noone had ever really cared, she never thought to put into words why she’d chosen the ones she did, but she tried her best. The brass ring on her pinky finger was the first thing she’d ever swiped. At the time, it had been big enough for her thumb. A similarly simple iron ring with some kind of pattern she explained was a simple item to repel negative supernatural forces. The other rings were just ones she’d liked, and taken, because she thought they were pretty. Tamatoa seemed to like that explanation.

Her necklace, the one that was front and center, was a large medallion, a silver triquetra in a circle knot, which she explained was just a good luck charm, but was unusual enough from regular ladies’ jewelry in southern Europe that it set her apart as a seer. Like a little sign saying ‘hexes sold here’, or ‘wrong me and i’ll curse you, bucko’.  She just liked it, and had found it on its own, rather than somewhere that immediately placed it as the property of someone else.

Under that sat a simple gold chain, and something that made Tamatoa laugh when he got an up close look - just a clay Sheela Na Gig figure strung on some twine. Not shiny, not at all, but something that she’d taken from her mother’s home before leaving it for good. Something that reminded her to take a little pride in being a woman in such a world as the one of pirates, silly as it might have looked to the crab. Tamatoa’s amusement at it despite its lack of polish was not something she thought she’d enjoy so much, but she couldn’t get over how genuine his interest had seemed. Not her favorite of her mother's things, she explained that she wasn’t going to risk losing her more sentimental possessions by actually having them on her body, and that most of her favorite, or more expensive things were in storage across the ocean. Tamatoa seemed annoyed at that philosophy.

“If you don’t wear them, what’s the _point?_ You can’t even prove you have them, babe! That is _such_ a waste.”

After a while she knew she was much, much too relaxed in the monster’s presence, and she knew that was what she had warned herself against, but as usual her emotions made the ultimate decision, and she sighed happily, not really caring. Interestingly though, as the conversation slowed, Tamatoa looked sort of tense. Maybe even a little guilty, and she gave him a genuinely confused face.

“What’s got your mind, Goldie?” She tried to sound cheery, but was sort of worried, and Tamatoa took a moment before giving her real eye contact.

“So I guess you probably wanna talk about Tucker’s Cross again.” He sighed defeatedly. “That’s why you’re here, after all.”

“Oh.” She responded, “Um… sure.”

Tamatoa seemed to perk up at her indirect response, apparently happy to realize she hadn’t actually been just biding her time until he would negotiate with her, but he cleared his throat and pretended it didn’t make a difference to him.

“Before anything else, you have _got_ to tell me what is your deal with that thing. You said your dad wants it for some magic something, and you want it to sell, is that right?”

“Something like that.” She sighed, “My father is um… An _aficionado_ of enchanted items. Bad, good, whatever. I can’t complain, that’s how he met my mother who was also… magically inclined. Wouldn’t have been born if not for his fanaticism, I s’pose.” She decided, “Anyway, Tucker’s Cross is his latest target. We been hangin’ around the pacific for a while now. Last thing we took was really important, thing is, it’s _too_ important. Stole some fancy jewels we did, real rubies and sapphires in big necklaces. Kinda stuff pirates brag about, when really being a pirate is mostly a sort of dine-and-dash situation. Thing is, we can’t sell ‘em. We just grabbed them and headed for the Indian like we had the devil at our heels, and we were there for about a year at least before we came ‘round to the Pacific, and we’ve been out here for years now. He never even… _tried_ to sell ‘em. Not even in Indonesia or Australia… I’m sure we could’a found buyers but I don’t… Oh, lord.” She shook her head, and Tamatoa, being surprisingly patient, gave her an odd look, “If you tell anyone this…” She held up a fist, as if that could possibly threaten the giant crab, and in response he just laughed, held up one claw as if the threat had worked as it was. “It’s not going anywhere, babe.” He grinned.

“Good.” She paused still unsure, “I just… I think he just wanted a reason to come after Tucker’s cross. We could have stolen anything, escaped to anywhere, but he brought us here.”

“If you ask me, it was a pretty good decision.” He added, and she looked at him with confusion before he gave her a deliberate wink and she grinned, rolling her eyes.

“Anyway, my point is that he didn’t trust us to agree on the voyage, with good reason - we would’a been skeptical as hell. It’s been a _looong_ trip. But we had to take it to get away from the charges, and we just _happen_ to end up where he thinks the cross is..? Dad does stuff like this, he’s always been a little… over-enthusiastic. But this is a really big job. Maybe a bigger job than we’ve _ever_ taken on. Europe is one hell of a long way away, he knew we wouldn’t wanna go this far. Sayin’ this is mutiny, of course.” She raised her eyebrows up at the crab, an extra warning, but instead of retaliating he just sort of nodded, maybe a little sad, even. She’d told her story pretty carelessly, but she couldn’t remember saying anything negative, what had she said wrong? She was stunned.

“You don’t like it here much, do you.” He guessed. Tally’s eyes went wide. She hadn’t even really thought about it. Pirates traveled, that’s all there was to it. But…

“It’s not that! I just don’t like not being on the level with my own dad. If we get the cross, our next expedition might be even more ambitious, go somewhere even farther. Find something even more hidden. If that’s possible. Even though the cross is expensive enough for us to do pretty much anything else.” She mused. “I like it here. I like it a lot! Motunui is a paradise in itself. Coconuts are better than dried black beef any day.” He looked disgusted, and she chuckled. “But I don’t know how long the islanders are gonna tolerate us. They’ve been super nice to us, and I have no idea why. It’s been amazing here, and I like it more every day.” She added with her own wink, sort of reaching her leg over to nudge his claw with the toe of her boot playfully. “I just don’t really have any control, you know?”

Tamatoa nodded. Sort of. She suspected he didn’t really know what she meant. She couldn’t imagine him in any situation where he couldn’t take control if he wanted. Whether because he was the strongest, or because he was alone, but she was happy that he didn’t criticize her for it at least.

“Well, there.” She said, raising her hands and letting them fall to signify the end of the explanation. “Now you know my daddy issues. Let’s hear yours.”

His mouth popped open in surprise. “Um…”

“Oh come on, you love talking about yourself, don’t you? Don’t I get to hear your story? At least a little of it? What’s the coconut crab protocol for familial obligation around these parts?”

He shook his head. “Let’s save that one for another day, okay, babe?”

She blew some hair out of her face in annoyance, but conceded.

To her surprise, when she looked at him again he seemed to be thinking hard about something. She sat up straight, and Tamatoa paused before speaking.

“If you got Tucker’s Cross right now, like right **right** now, what would be your next move?”

“I… guess I’d have to give it to my dad, and we’d leave.” She blinked, having not really thought about it since she’d come down here for the second time, just interested in talking with the crab again.

“You’d _have_ to?” He asked, sort of curiously, sort of knowingly, “Why? What happens if you don’t?” She quirked her eyebrow at him.

“What are you getting at?”

“I’m just saying… You don’t have to do what your kooky old man wants.”

“I may be a thief, but I couldn’t just… defy him. He’s not _that_ bad.”

“What if he didn’t know?”

Tally finally crossed her arms and leaned forward on her folded legs. “Goldie, I swear, if you don’t speak plainly…”

“What if we just don’t give it to him yet?” He blurted out. _We?_ “Of course I have the cross.” He began, his voice full of anticipation, clearly not entirely sure whether he was making the right choice here or not, and trying to hurry through it, “I’m the best collector in the Pacific. Probably anywhere! Definitely in Lalotai. And yes, I could give it to you and it would hardly make a dent in my collection. But... it **_is_** pretty priceless... what if… it takes a long time for you to convince me to hand it over?”

Her eyes widened, she was pretty sure she knew what he was getting at, but she wasn’t sure if it was some kind of wishful thinking on her part, or…

“Maybe I have some demands. Orrr... maybe it takes me a while to find it. I do have a _lot_ of treasure... Or maybe I won’t let it go until you find me something just as powerful, ey? So… Maybe you have to stay here a little longer, definitely not because you’re screwing over your dad or anything, but for totally completely legitimate definitely not contrived reasons.” He looked down at her with sort of wide eyes, and pursed lips, maybe not totally comfortable that he had exposed this as if he had been thinking about it for a long time, which it seemed like he had. Her face broke out into a smile.

“Great Collector Coconut Crab Tamatoa of Lalotai… are you asking me if I want to join you in a scheme to make my crew think I’m negotiating with you, but we really just get to do whatever we want down here?”

“...Maybe.”

She laughed at the juvenile tone in his voice, but she sighed. “If my father finds out…”

“Well either way it’s still up to me, right? I know **I** don’t owe that crazy sailor anything. ...You don’t either. It’s… nice here! Like you said, Motunui is a paradise, right? We’re just… _extending their vacation_ . You’d be doing them a favor, _ma souris_.”

She grinned, biting her lip. “That is totally devious.”

“And?”

“I’m in.”


	7. Cat's Paws

It had been a lot harder to come up with a believable plan than they would probably have liked. Anything that involved flimsy excuses to come see him were sort of off the table, since the fact that they enjoyed each other's company was already common knowledge, at least to a point. The easiest option would probably have been for her to come back as often as she could, and tell her friends that she was simply taking a long time negotiating with the crab, but it was too suspicious when they knew they were already friends.

Sending the pirates on a treasure hunt would also send Tallulah away to participate, not to mention whatever he could request would have to be from within the region, or it would defeat the purpose, but at this point the idea of actually taking anything from the people who lived on these islands was far off the table. The people of Motunui had given them the benefit of the doubt, and that was more than they deserved. Wreaking havoc, even just a little in the area was unacceptable. Tamatoa may not have quite understood Pirate’s Honor, or even believe it really existed, but the idea that the pirates might make themselves unwelcome in these waters chasing their red herring was enough for him to agree it was a dead end.

It simply being buried under the rest of his treasure and therefore difficult to find presented a lot of problems, the most being that it would be pretty easy to start to think he simply didn’t have it at all, and the pirates would give up and be on their way. Tamatoa himself was also skeptical that _anyone_ who had even heard his name before would believe it would take him too long to find anything in his collection.

It should have been easy to come up with something. After all, Tamatoa was known for being a avid collector and tough negotiator, but what had Tamatoa wanted before now? What trouble had he caused for humans in the past that could apply to this situation? Tamatoa wasn’t one to ask for things - he took them. Any trouble he caused for humans was an event they had no control over. None of this surprised Tal, but it wasn’t something she had considered either.

Eventually they decided a mundane choice was too obviously fake for such an unusual situation. European pirates? It would be strange of him to ask them for anything he could get from the islanders, pointless, even. But he already had treasure, what could they give him?

Their final choice was absurd, but had both of them genuinely giddy. It made sense in theory, but when Tally arrived on the shores of Motunui once more, the statement her crewmates had made about her ability to lie was instantly put to the test.

Lying to her crewmates was easy. She knew each of them pretty well, and they certainly didn’t know Tamatoa, what he was like, what he wanted - they would probably never even see the colossal, colorful crustacean with their own eyes.

She had to admit, the thought really did make her sad on their behalf.

But the hardest people to convince where inevitably going to be Maui, Moana and anyone else even vaguely familiar with Tamatoa.

“He wants _what?_ ” Maui looked flabbergasted, but not disbelieving, that was good.

“You know… a portrait. From the pirates only though, you guys aren’t allowed to help. Except as consultants, since you’ve actually seen him, yeah?”

Moana’s face twisted in confusion and she looked up to Maui for a moment before back to Tally’s face, which maintained its genuine look.

“Why not?”

When making this plan she and Tamatoa had been sure it was foolproof. Such a simple question threw her into new territory all alone, and she realized this was going to be a little harder than she thought.

“He wants them to earn it.” She explained, making it up as it came out of her mouth, “Besides, there are already portraits of him around these islands. This is a once-in-a-century opportunity to get a Reginald Crew Original. I mean the cross **_is_ ** ridiculously expensive. Trying to buy it from a human collector would be infinitely more difficult, I say we just do it.”

Moana seemed unable to follow the logic (to be fair, there was very little of it) and thankfully the absurdity of it was working exactly as they had hoped. Tally maintained a careless air, and let Moana and Maui decide for themselves how crazy it was.

The chieftess looked over at the pirates on their little claimed stretch of the beach, a handful of them getting irreparably sunburned as they napped on the sand. Three men trying to repair one shelter that wind had damaged and failing. Two fighting over half a bottle of whiskey, quickly escalating into a real fistfight over the liquor. Moana looked back to Tally, her face still highly confused.

“Um… Are you sure they... _Can_ do that?” She asked, trying to be polite but gesturing toward the lot of them somewhat covertly.

Tally repeated the gesture, looking over at her crew and then back to Moana, but with a much more nonchalant expression. “I guess we’ll find out, right?"

To Tally’s delight, the sailors were both very enthusiastic about the project, and _very_ slow. She was pretty surprised how excited they were. All of them just sitting around or doing mundane tasks left them with a lot of unused energy, and this was certainly a new challenge, and one with a fabulous prize at the end. They opted for sculpture. Sticks, tree branches and bark gathered on the beach, and without a plan of any kind, it took the pirates a long time to even create a structure sound enough to begin building on. Tally was impressed with her crewmates, if only for their enthusiasm about something other than rum, money and fighting. She wasn't sure she was missing out not watching real artists at work, but watching the people she cared about fumble through a creative task made her almost forget the dishonesty with which this task was built on.

Moana couldn’t hang around and supervise as much as she was interested in how they would create art, if it was going to be a particularly European process, what exactly their method was (Tally didn’t have the heart to tell her they didn’t really have one), but Maui seemed happier than ever, sitting back and giving the pirates details, correcting them, describing Tamatoa, sometimes not so flatteringly, but Tally could find the Lalotai gate by herself now, and Maui seemed thrilled to be able to spend time with Moana, going back to help her in the village, and maybe basking in their adulation or something, Tally wasn’t really sure since she was making an effort not to buy into the scheme she had set up and actually help like this was something that mattered in the grand scheme of things. The pirates, with all their clumsiness, seemed to be having some kind of fun fighting over how to approach the task. Even her father came out of his cabin every once in a while to suggest new ideas or ways to bind the pieces together.

* * *

_(Author note: Think the sculpture “Woodrow” by Deborah Butterfield at the Walker Art Center Sculpture Garden if you want visual reference.)_

* * *

Tally would go to Lalotai, visit Tamatoa, and they would have a conversation or two or three, or as time went on more and more she convinced him to leave his cave and explore with her. For how isolated he seemed to make himself, she still probably shouldn’t have been as surprised as she was that he knew the terrain so well. As much as it might have been pleasant to walk around aimlessly, what Tally was really on the lookout for was magic. Places and things with special properties, that radiated with power, and in Lalotai there was a lot. Tamatoa was kind of bored at first. It didn’t seem worth it to bring her all the way out to some cave somewhere with what she deemed ‘otherworldly’ crystals only for him to not be able to follow her in, and her to ignore him.

Not that she didn’t try to talk about it with him, but he was stubborn. She’d try to start a conversation, but it seemed Lalotai was too familiar to Tamatoa and he would sit and complain until she agreed to go back to his cave. It might have been annoying, but Tally really hadn’t ever had anyone who wanted her company enough to whine about it, and his petulance made her feel like the choice was ultimately hers. When she gave in, Tamatoa’s reaction was always worth it. Once more, he never seemed to threaten her either. Sometimes when she slipped up, saying something he didn’t like, and his eyes went dark she would be stunned, but he never seemed to follow any impulse to do anything but tell her off.

Eventually though he did start to humor her, and she found he actually had a lot to say about the properties and origins of powers beyond the human realm. Once he realized how impressed and intrigued she was by his commentary he leaned into it quite a lot more, showing off, naturally.

Even in the dangerous blue of Lalotai he seemed unable to resist using his gold to catch her eye, or admire in some of the different haunting light sources they came across. She thought nothing of it until a smaller, screeching monster came down to see where the shine was coming from. There was a moment of fear through her heart as she realized they weren’t exactly out at sea where all they’d attract was the sunlight, wild terrain like this was not Tally’s specialty - but it seemed to be Tamatoa’s. When the creature dipped down low enough he simply gave a disapproving snarl and snapped it right out of the air and in half with his claw. Tally watched intently from beginning to gruesome end when he decided his less-than-worthy opponent was a worthy snack, and slurped the creature down after only a few deafening bites.

He looked down to see her staring, and was also stunned for a moment as he realized the monstrous habit he had displayed in front of her.

“Oh, um…” The giant crab began, licking the rest of the evidence off his lips.

“That was incredible!” She gasped. Never had she seen such a wild, terrifying conflict, and had the victor turn to her as an ally. With blood still staining his teeth, his proud grin was no less innocent in its pride; and she laughed, motioning to her own teeth as a hint to what she was saying. The only thing was that now she felt so... inadequate. She had her cutlass, and it had come in handy down here (if mostly for cutting her way through stubborn flora) but she was dangerous too. As much as she was content to watch him flaunt the sources of his pride, she couldn’t pretend she didn’t sort of wish they could run into a situation where she could show him something, even if she knew it was unlikely there was anything she could do that would be particularly impressive in Tamatoa’s eyes. At one point she entertained out loud the idea of bringing one of the crew's muskets with her, just to help out, and Tamatoa was very loud in his rejection of the thought. He didn't know much about guns, but he knew enough to remind her that they were _loud_. Her lack of foresight about this fact seemed to facetiously disappoint the giant crab, and as he had attributed many of her more boisterous habits to before, she couldn't help but be amused when she heard him mumble. _"Pirates."_

Her excuse for visiting him was, naturally, giving him updates on his very important commission; and even though that was not exactly the priority of their visits, she felt like it was probably important that he at least know in case the two of them were to ever be tested, so she did. She told him what the pirates were doing, how they were getting along, and though it was only a distraction, she found Tamatoa, and herself, starting to take it pretty seriously. Tally wasn't going to lie to him, the sculpture was already as drab as sculptures come, and he barely tried to ignore it, starting to become genuinely upset that his likeness was not being recreated in the way he would have preferred. The information she relayed between the parties became pretty convincing, because each side seemed to be finding a lot of joy in the process (even if Tamatoa's joy was in complaining about it).

As they ventured to more dangerous areas, Tamatoa offered for her to stick close to him, even ride on his back perhaps, and though he acted as if it was nothing, she knew it was some kind of honor. Still, she didn’t quite see the value in this other than getting a chance to rest her legs. As much as she enjoyed being up there, sharing Tamatoa’s incredible view, surrounded by the very source of his pride, she wasn’t sure how practical it was for safety purposes.

When she turned him down, he seemed sort of hurt, and she held up her hands before they moved to continue, suggesting something else. The suggestion seemed to surprise him, but he agreed simply, and soon she was walking beneath him instead, pretty well hidden by his body, and shielded by his legs. Finally she got a good look at his amputated one, and was suddenly very aware of how much of a balancing act he was performing. As much as she pictured any crab with many legs in the manner of a spider or beetle, for Tamatoa on his left side, there was only one foot on the ground holding him up. If she’d been forgetting his grace until he did something unbelievably delicate with his giant claws or move with precision, there was no way she could lose that awareness now.

To her it was a novel experience, something to add do the dreamlike feeling that ebbed and flowed around this plane, but as soon as she stumbled forward and got a look at his face gazing forward, only to cast his eyes down at her next to his front legs, it seemed like he was trying to hide some kind of discomfort. Impulsively she suggested that it was probably safe enough now for her to walk beside him instead, but he didn’t concede, and she went back to her place.

She was no animal expert, and certainly not a crab expert, but even with common knowledge on her side, somehow she never considered that Tamatoa might have any weak points at all. His eyes, maybe. No creature had armored eyes, did they? Maybe in Lalotai. But Tamatoa had armored everything-else, it was easy for her to forget that he wasn’t a more of a vehicle than anything else, he was indeed an animal, and she was beginning to realize that above her head she could see him breathing, and feel his warmth. The underside of him was not armored, and she felt a little guilty that she hadn’t considered that when she suggested the formation.

She wasn’t sure if his nerves were frazzled because of the intimacy of it, or out of instinctual discomfort that warned him, fairly, that having any creature under here was dubious at best; and she wasn’t sure which option she preferred either. When on uneven terrain, unable to resist, she had reached up just to brush her fingers against him, and with a “Hey!” and a stall from Tamatoa, along with a very brief, flustered lecture about keeping one's’ hands to themselves, she was starting to worry it was the former. Or maybe, she was starting to _hope_ it was the former?

Yikes.

Beyond all his eccentricities (that Tally was starting to find charming anyway) Tamatoa was magnificent, and beautiful, and certainly good company, but he was not human, nor had there ever been a moment where she’d forgotten this fact either. Of course her fondness for him was a little beyond friendship, but she was sure that was only because she was a woman, and he was a man (of a sort), personal attention from men she actually wanted attention from was pretty few and far between. Other than the occasional foreign lover, or humoring a drunken crewmates’ affections by the fire, she was relatively without romantic attention at all, and even though she was no aristocrat, she saw how they conducted themselves. Platonic romance was out there, a game the puritans played before they married, and surely this was the same game she and Tamatoa were playing. Nothing more, nothing less. Flirting, love notes, jealousy and imagination, it was all part of the dance; made all the more potent by the fact that they had no delusions that they wouldn’t eventually have to part. She’d treasure this experience forever, look back on it with fondness, but she would not feel regret, and certainly neither would Tamatoa.

If only Maui hadn’t said anything, surely she would never have even worried about any further implication. This wouldn’t even be on her mind if he hadn’t brought it up like it _wasn’t_ absurd and impossible (because it was ...wasn’t it?). But unfortunately, it was on her mind anyway, and out of a worry that he or others might suspect the same thing she often made it a point to return in a timely manner. Tamatoa offered to let her stay until morning, no harm would come from sleeping in the safety of his cave, but she had to check on her father, and she needed to eat human food. At least, this was what she convinced herself of, and Tamatoa too.

If not for Maui’s accusation she was sure that she wouldn’t be thinking these things simply because she had the opportunity to stay overnight, or because was walking underneath him. She wouldn’t pay attention to the grace with which he moved and the strength of his legs if she wasn’t trying to convince herself it _didn’t_ entrance her. She wouldn’t catch rich notes in his voice during a flirtatious line that made her flush if she wasn’t worrying that he was serious. It was Maui’s doing, she was sure of it, his accusation that had put this thought in her head; not her own interest. It must have been Maui. Intelligence, supernatural abilities and even size aside, Tamatoa was a crab. As little as she subscribed to the general Christian-focused majority of Europe (doing witchcraft made that pretty hard), or any other belief system with hard rules and morals, she was still pretty sure besteality was fundamentally wrong somehow, and certainly that’s what Maui had accused her of. Tally was a lot of things, but a sexual deviant? It wasn’t really something she ever wanted to add to her resume of sin.

Nonetheless, what was done was done, and now that she was near a vulnerable part of him, it was impossible for her not to wonder what other parts of him might also be sensitive. Just out of curiosity, of course, since until now all she had really seen when she looked at him was a well-armored warrior of a creature. Briefly she also checked in her memory for any instances where she might have gotten a glimpse of what a crab’s genitals looked like, but disgusted at herself she found relief in that such knowledge was still a mystery to her.

She was critical of her own imagination, but above all else she was sure Tamatoa, despite some of his amorous behavior, would have very little interest in her that way if he was actually presented with the option. Even if there was some novel interest she might have in spending some personal time with a giant monster crab, humans were a dime a dozen. Not to mention, even if he did entertain her, she was unconvinced she would leave the encounter anything less than permanently crippled. This final thought was enough to convince her to put it out of her mind. Want, didn’t want, an impossibility was an impossibility.

Mercifully, every time she departed from the beaches of the Lalotai gate, her experience would inevitably begin to drift into the part of her mind that dealt with fantasy. Not so much because of Tamatoa himself, but because of Lalotai. She’d seen monsters in some strange places around these seven seas, but she had never seen a place like Lalotai, and leaving Tamatoa behind in the other realm always seemed to neutralize whatever she was feeling, which was inevitably a tremendous relief, much as she might not want to admit it. When she returned, it was never awkward. Only a new day to spend some time with a very interesting new friend.

 

* * *

 

Unfortunately, their peace and calm did not last as long as they had hoped. Not for the reasons they had assumed, either.

Up at the Lalotai gate (which she had learned to open through a ritual that was nowhere near as quick or entertaining as Maui’s was) Tally was preparing to go down when, through the fog over the sea she could spot a large ship, another European vessel. If it wasn’t enough of a shock to see another ship on the waters they’d found to be devoid of any foreign presence but their own, unlike Reginald’s crew’s Brigantine, this was a massive Clipper. Worse than that, it was a familiar one.

Longingly, she looked at the closed gate, and really wished she had some kind of paper to write a note on, and a heavy bottle to put it into and drop into the Lalotai entrance, but there was simply not enough time. She hid on the edge of the tower until the boat was out of sight, thanking those non-Christian forces of hers that they were not going in the direction of Motunui, or any other location she could think of where they would have any success orienting themselves. They were lost, or at least did not have solid coordinates, and for that Tally was grateful.

When she was sure they wouldn’t see her, she finally repelled down the side, jumped on the borrowed canoe and tried with fervor to make good time back to Motunui.


	8. Touch And Go

How long had it been, two weeks? Three? How long did mortals live again? He didn’t remember her getting to look any older during the time she’d spent in Lalotai with him, but anything seemed possible really.

He didn’t miss her, which was a relief. Yeah, okay, maybe this had been pathetic. Maybe grabbing a little pirate from out of the sea and filling time with self-indulgent nonsense was something he might not have done before the return of the heart. Whatever. But he didn’t miss her, and that was the most relieving thing. If he, a thousands of years old fearsome monster crab, had really gotten used to a human’s presence in barely a few weeks (or was it months?), that would be a bad, bad sign. She had been a distraction from being alone with his thoughts, that hadn’t changed, other than it no longer being an option anymore.

Anyway, missing her, no. She was sort of tiring, at least mentally. In a good way - but tiring nonetheless. It was nice to have someone to sort of play with, talk with, but ultimately Tamatoa was happy to spend long periods of time alone. So missing her? Nah. _Worrying_ about her..? Maybe. Confused? Absolutely.

It made no sense that nobody had come down to say anything to him. If she had died, surely the crew still needed Tucker’s Cross, didn’t they? And even if they had given up for some reason, ideally Maui would at least come down to tell him so, lest Tamatoa have some kind of friendly neglect to hold over his head. Being stuck in Lalotai with no connection to the surface was frustrating. It was frustrating regardless, when there were interesting things happening above, but now it was especially frustrating, and all he could really do was pout.

Unfortunately, his belief that the residents of Lalotai these days were much more likely to pay him a visit for one reason or another was based very much in reality, and just as he was sure he was about to think about something different, an all-too _familiar_ five-eyed ratty bat-thing swooped into his cave and up to the ceiling where Tamatoa was unable to catch him, laughing nastily at the crab who didn’t even try to reach up and snap at him.

“Ugh.” He groaned with annoyance, bracing his patience for whatever the little nuisance was here for this time.

“Word around Lalotai,” The bat hissed, hanging upside down and staring straight at Tamatoa with his many excited, beady eyes, “You has had having a little trouble with infestation around here.”

“Only since just right now.” Tamatoa glared up at the creature, “You know, I think I’m actually looking at the beginning of an infestation of nasty little bug-eyed thieves! So maybe you should get out before I call an exterminator.”

“Thieves!” The bat squeaked with amusement, “That’s a laugh and a half! My pretties are back where they _belong_ , you shabby crab!”

“Why are you here? What do you want?” He sighed. “Can’t you just leave me alone?”

“I just came here to tell you everyone knows. Everyone knows! Great Tamatoa, disgraced by monsters, weak and sad and lonely, crawling after dirty little human, tail between his legs. Thought noone would notice, did you? Or does great Tamatoa just not care? So shameless now, is he?”

In silence, he just glared angrily at the red winged rodent. He would have liked to have something to say, not so much for this little bastard to hear, but for him to report to any gossiping monsters. Clearly he was here because he was an expendable ally to the others who had grudges against him, and in a way that was sickeningly satisfying - they were still scared of him, at least to a point, if they were sending this little idiot as their representative; and he _was_ more than tempted to kill the messenger. This was, however, a little opportunity to defend himself, though he wasn’t sure if he really wanted to, or if it was just out of habit. Unfortunately, either way, he was drawing blanks.

“A spellcaster.” He finally remembered, somewhat triumphantly; and the bat reacted just as hoped. Tilting it’s head, reconsidering its stance on the situation. It didn’t change anything really, but it was a complication that gave the story the possibility of missing details, which was enough for Tamatoa now. He could see the bat trying to process it. The confusion and inability to come to a conclusion on its face was very satisfying, but of course, it just had to open it’s rancid little mouth and screech at him again.

“Tamatoa befriends a spellcaster? Or Tamatoa needs spells cast?”

“Yeah, man.” Tamatoa didn’t answer the question, but rolled with the theme anyway, “It’s all foreign magic too. You have _no_ idea what’s coming your way, buddy.”

To Tamatoa’s delight, the bat creature froze in his place, eyes wide, and he grinned up menacingly, _knowingly_ , at the suddenly frightened little worm of a monster.

If there was one good thing about putting patches on his friendship with Maui, it was that the Lalotai residents, for better or worse, couldn’t pretend he didn’t have friends in high places. Maui had returned the heart, that was all the monsters needed to know to put them on their guard again. Of course, in reality, Tamatoa was pretty sure Maui’s softer side was getting a good workout, especially with his little mortal chieftess girlfriend at the helm. Not that Tamatoa didn’t actually kind of like Moana; but Tamatoa was sure that the influence she had on Maui definitely encouraged some kind of weakness in him. Not that the other monsters knew that.

“Tamatoa _has_ his spells cast. Now he needs peace and quiet, understand?” He growled up at the little pest, who stirred but did not move, and narrowed his many eyes down at the crab challengingly. It was pretty obvious that the fear of magical repercussion had been enough though, and finally Tamatoa picked up a large rock and chucked it, pretty accurately at the bat, which hit him hard in the side and the bat lost its grip, fluttering and screeching up in the corner of the cave before darting out of the cave without protest, staying out of Tamatoa’s reach the whole way. Good.

Now if she didn’t ever come back, there would be very little debate. He was of course counting on the monsters to forget the threat the red bat would bring back to them, but he’d cross that bridge when he came to it. In the meantime, being able to defend his intentions really hadn’t perked him up at all. The bat’s visit left him in an even more sour mood, and with an even grumpier scowl, he buried himself a little more in the warm sand.

Of course everyone knew, but did he care? It’s not like any of the other monsters were actually his friends, and it was pretty unlikely they ever would be again. They had stripped him of his pride to boot. What did he possibly have to lose by them knowing about his little pirate girl? Nothing would be as humiliating as losing almost all of his collection had been. Nothing would _ever_ be as humiliating.

If anything about this situation hurt it was thinking about how much she must be longing for his company, assuming she was still alive. On Tamatoa’s end, finding one mortal who could hold a conversation was not _that_ rare. But for Tallulah, her time spent with him was probably the most interesting thing that would ever happen to her in her short little life. Surely, Tamatoa was special to her, even if she wasn’t special to him, and that gave him a feeling of responsibility, holding that title. Wherever she was now, inevitably she was suffering without his presence. Nevermind her stories about other monsters or adventures or battles… Yes, Tamatoa was sure he was the most magnificent thing that had ever come into her life. It was inevitable. She’d never even gotten to hear him sing, they’d been so busy talking. A tragedy, indeed.

 _“Pretend I’ll live forever.”_ She had told him, and that still rang in his ears. He was sure that she had been messing with him. Pretty sure. Maybe. If she _hadn’t_ been… Well he didn’t really want to consider that as a possibility, if only because the idea of his _petite souris_ going off to live a truly long life without him, without saying a word before she left, sort of burned in his throat. He could forgive a mortal girl for failing in her half of responsibility in this little relationship they had going, mortals were unreliable for a number of reasons. But an immortal one..?

Would that even change anything? Rude, of course, that she couldn’t find the time to say goodbye if she really did have as much time as she’d hinted. But she would still leave with her crew, he would still be alone again, not that he wasn’t okay with that. Being alone was kind of a specialty of his. It was just unfair that he had to do it so fast after he’d found something that made him feel good for once. Mortal, immortal, she had made him happy, and she had left, and that feeling of being a dejected steady waiting for a call was back. Nobody could blame him for being a little down about it.

It’s not like he’d lost some grand opportunity, not really, it wasn’t as if he looked at her and saw some kind of weird interdimensional, interspecies marriage material; but he wasn’t gonna pretend he couldn’t have used just a little more of that sweet talk she was so good at. A little more conversation, a few more opportunities to make her laugh, a chance to see how far this little temporary romance would have gone. That wasn’t so much to ask.

All this fretting over a little human felt pretty stupid anyway. It’s not like she was even a useful ally like Moana and Maui were. Not that he’d had a chance to test it, actually, other than a few moments of aggression he’d seen from her in Lalotai, which, admittedly, was kind of a turn-on. What he really wanted was her attention, but it might have been nice to see what she could really do, maybe on an adventure, like the ones they had described to each other. What could they get up to as a duo? Just thinking about what treasures they could find with the two of them working together was kind of intriguing. Not that a human continuously visiting Lalotai was a good idea in the first place. Somehow that seemed like it could have unforeseen consequences. And he couldn’t get to the human world, nor did he really want to. But she was pretty convincing. Who knows what the future might have held? He didn’t, because she was gone. Lame.

So, no, he didn’t miss her. Other than finding some new shiny thing, staying at home and napping was his favorite thing! He was content to focus on that again. Glorious relaxation. Never a bad thing. It was just... kind of a shitty feeling, thinking a road he was going down happily was cut off for good. Who knew how long it would take for him to find something that made him feel half as good? Oh well.

 

* * *

 

The sound of human footsteps outside of his lair made Tamatoa’s heart drop - before he listened just a little more carefully and realized they were much too heavy to be Tallulah’s. He had just ended a long, self-pitying sigh when Maui made himself known.

Pretending as if he’d just woken up, he blinked slowly at the demigod. “Oh hey, man.” Adding a yawn was pretty easy, “What’s up?”

“Hey Tamatoa, I just wanted to come down and let you know, I don’t think those pirates are going to want that talisman after all.”

“Oh?” He tried to sound as if it made no difference to him one way or the other.

“Yeah, something… came up, I guess. That’s why Tally hasn’t been around to update you on that little project you had them doing, all of them have been pretty busy. I hate to say it buddy, but you might not get your pirate portrait. Sorry about that.”

“Eh.” He sort of tilted his claw in the air carelessly, “The way she was describing it didn’t sound like it was coming along very well anyway.”

“Yeah,” Maui chuckled, “I wouldn’t say you’re missing out on much. It was pretty ridiculous, even for you.”

Tamatoa rolled his eyes, but sort of smiled. At the joke, not so much, his taste was impeccable; but it was nice to finally have someone come down and fill him in. Or at least, it was until Maui turned to leave.

“Anyway, the cross is yours, just thought I’d let you know.” He said over his shoulder as he neared the entrance.

“Wait!” Tamatoa chirped, maybe with just a little too much enthusiasm for the attitude he’d been presenting. Maui turned around with a confused look, but sure enough, stopped to listen.

“I mean… you’re not even going to tell me what’s happening up there?”

“Uh…” Maui looked left then right as if there was some hint as to why he was asking hiding just out of sight. “Sure..? I guess?”

Tamatoa looked at him for a moment. “Well?”

“Uh, um, they got uh…” Maui clearly had not been planning on telling him a damn thing, and was struggling to come up with a concise description “These other pirates, they’re coming.”

“Other pirates? They want the cross too, huh?”

“No, nothing like that. Actually, it’s something they already have, something pretty important, I guess.”

“The jeweled necklaces.” Tamatoa realized, under his breath. Maui straightened up.

“Um, yeah,” Maui replied, obviously a little taken aback by how fast he was in solving it, “Well, anyway, they kind of don’t have time to create a big portrait of one self-obsessed monster crab anymore. They’re getting ready to fight them off, I guess.”

“You’re not sure?” He ignored the insult.

“They went to the other side of the island, I guess Moana was at least _kind of_ right about them, they don’t want the villagers involved. Anyway, that’s all there is to it.”

“What are their chances?”

“What the- How am I supposed to know, crab cake? Why do you care? Worried about Tally, huh?”

“Psh. No.” Tamatoa insisted.

“That’s so cute.” Maui teased, “Well, tell you what: I’ll let you know how the whole thing pans out next time we talk, sound good?”

“No! That does not sound good!” Tamatoa replied, obviously not the answer Maui was expecting, because he stared, wide-eyed.

“Uh, what?”

“Just… Just tell her to come back, okay?”

“What? No! Tamatoa?”

“Come on, man.” He continued, a little bit of desperation in his voice, speeding up as he continued his plea, “You know I can’t get up there. Just-just give her the message! It’s not that big of a deal. I just want to talk to her. Imagine if _you_ were stuck in a different realm and you had to ask me to deliver a message to Moana and I said no! I mean what are you, my prison warden? That’s really messed up, especially for a _hero,_ right?”

“Whoah, man…” Maui stared at the crab in disbelief, the hand not carrying his hook up to slow him down. “Alright! If it’s that important to you.”

“Finally.” Tamatoa sighed, frustration still in his voice.

“But I…” Maui took a deep breath, rolling his shoulders before looking back to the crab to continue, “Look man, I can’t just… Tell her to come down here because you ‘want to talk to her’.”

“Excuse me? Why not?” He scowled.

“Because she _will._ ” He admitted, Tamatoa just blinked at him, waiting for more. “They don’t want the islanders involved, but I’ve been helping them out on Moana’s personal behalf, getting them used to the layout of the island and everything, and man, she won’t _shut up_ about you.”

This really made Tamatoa smile, a big toothy grin. He would never have thought hearing that one person had him on their mind would make him feel so _good_. “I am pretty great. You have to admit.” Tamatoa reminded him with a little pose, and he could practically feel Maui rolling his eyes.

“I definitely do not have to admit that.” Maui let him know, “My point is, I’m sure she’d love to be down here with you…” Maui paused, looking Tamatoa up and down once where he sat in front of the demigod, “...I don’t know _why,_ but she’s obviously a fan. She needs to help her people - her crew, that is. I’m not gonna send her down here thinking something good is gonna come of it, just for her to waste her time.”

“Why don’t you let _her_ decide that?” Tamatoa growled, “Who gave _you_ the right to make _our_ choices?”

“I get it, you know?” Maui continued with a little more enthusiasm, “You… Well, you have a little crab crush.”

“Very funny.” Tamatoa retaliated, and broke eye contact with Maui defiantly. _“ As if .”_

Maui didn’t push it. “...But unless you really have a really good reason, I’m not gonna send one of the only sensible pirates of their crew away from the rest of them while they wait for an attack.”

Tamatoa just frowned, angry and hurt, his mind cycling through reasons he could justify bringing her down again. He could just give her the cross, though he wasn’t sure it had any effect on other humans. He could give her a weapon… Not that he had anything that was particularly good against pirates, nothing that was functional anyway. There had to be _something_...

“She could hide here.” Tamatoa suggested, “I mean, there’s no way any pirates are gonna face _me_ just to get to her.”

Maui folded his arms. “You want to give her _whole crew_ a hiding place too?”

“Uh…”

“Even if you could, the incoming pirates would just find the village instead and I am not letting that happen. Not a chance.”

Tamatoa was silent, and Maui seemed unable to help giving him a sort of sympathetic look.

“You knew she was gonna leave anyway.” Maui reminded him, his voice quieter than before, “Is a few more days really gonna make a difference?”

After a moment, Tamatoa heaved an enormous sigh. _“Fine.”_ He conceded, and Maui completely relaxed in relief. “It’s for the best, buddy. I’ll tell her that you, uh… you’ll treasure her in your heart forever or something.” With that, the demigod turned to leave.

“Get me up there, then.”

Maui stopped cold. _“What?”_

“You heard what I said.” The crab stood up confidently, “You made your point really well, great job man, seriously. But I want to see her, and obviously she wants to see me. I’ll, um… I’ll help them out or something.”

Maui just stood, still shocked quiet.

“Did you hear me?” Tamatoa demanded angrily, “I’m going up! So, make it happen, demigod!”

“I-I can’t just… How do you expect me to…” Maui stuttered, “Even if I could get you up there, you know how much you’re gonna freak out the villagers?”

“I’m sorry, you mean the people who hear my story as children? I’m a celebrity to them!”

“Not that kind of celebrity, buddy!” Maui insisted, a little manic. Tamatoa ignored the frantic tone of his voice.

“As for the pirates, maybe my marvelous presence will remind them to get back to work on the art they _promised_ me.” He nodded, “Inspire them, even.”

“Don’t try and pretend you ever cared about that stupid thing!” Maui argued.

“Who cares? A deal is a deal! And I’ll bring them the cross, so it’ll be all on the up-and-up.” He winked at the demigod, who was clearly still not on board, even though Tamatoa had decided to pretend he was.

“It’ll be great! I mean," He slowed, thinking of something that made him grin wickedly. "That sweet little Moana of yours is the one who wants me to be some kind of model sea monster, right? Think of how happy it’ll make her to see me up there, _helping_ others,”

He brought a claw to his chest, gazing off blankly as if he could see it in his mind, but in his peripheral vision he watched Maui instead.

“...Knowing _you’re_ the one who convinced me.”

Tamatoa grinned as he watched Maui's face change with realization; and and brand new kind of shock held him in its grip. The demigod just stared up at the crab for a moment, and it was easy to read in his expression that he was in agreement, begrudging as it may be. Whether Maui was happy about it or not, Tamatoa caught him this time.

Hook, line & sinker.


	9. Rogue Wave

“Hey, wait!” Maui shouted, before swiftly changing into hawk form to chase the enormous coconut crab down the side of the island, the loud crunching of entire trees and birds screeching as they flew out of their destroyed homes was pretty deafening, but he knew Tamatoa wasn’t even listening in the first place. The demigod swooped down in front of his stubborn friend’s face, finally making him pause and blink up against the flapping of wings right in front of his face.

“What?” Tamatoa tried to dodge the bird and with determination Maui blocked his descent. “Come on man!” The crab growled, and the bird stared him down scoldingly.

Tamatoa paused for a moment, then rolled his eyes in silent admittance that he did know what the shapeshifter was getting at with his silent gaze. “Look, if I go in slow, that gives them time to all get their fun, piratey weapons ready to attack me. I’ve just gotta jump in there! Rip it off like a band-aid!”

As the giant crab began moving forward again, to Maui’s relief he was slower, and he flew down behind his neck on the edge of his shell, returning to human form there so he could speak to him. “You’ve gotta let me prepare them first!” Maui pleaded, “I brought you all the way here, the least you can do is just listen to me for one second!”

In an absurdly annoying act of defiance, Tamatoa, still crawling forward, turned to give the demigod on his shell a smug grin. “I don’t _think_ so, pal.”

Maui could barely protest as he held onto the edge of the golden mass for dear life, finally bracing himself when Tamatoa broke through the trees to the beach where the pirates were preparing their defenses.

As should probably have been expected, the whole crew started screaming, shouting and grabbing their weapons. Maui’s heart beat wildly. Damn Tamatoa! The crab didn’t even seem swayed, completely ignoring the outrage for what it was, his eyes darting around on the beach, inevitably trying to find Blondie. Maui stumbled forward and up as fast as he could to be seen by the pirates and waved from where he was on the shell.

“Guys, it’s me! It’s Maui!”

Only a few of them seemed to actually identify him in their panic, and were at least stunned enough to stop running around. Pirates were loading their muskets frantically, pulling out their swords and Maui was pretty sure he could also see someone on their boat near the shore loading a cannon. This was bad. Bad, bad, bad! He knew this was a terrible idea, he began screeching at Tamatoa to retreat. Not that he thought they would really hurt Tamatoa, but maybe the he’d hurt them, or maybe they’d end up blowing all of them up by their powers combined. Frustratingly, Tamatoa still seemed unreceptive to anything but his task of eye-spy.

To everyone’s shock and luck, from behind his head, Maui could see Tamatoa’s face turn up in a smile, and see a raggedy pirate gal dash out from the crowd, only to run up to the crab who, without paying any mind to Maui, let himself drop to the sand so she could wrap her arms around his neck, as best she could. “Tamatoa!” She cried, elated, and with a scowl toward the ungrateful crab, Maui finally hopped off his back and onto the sand.

When he turned to look at the pirates, they all were immobile, just staring at the interaction between the unbelievable giant crab monster and their familiar sea witch. Thank Te Fiti, they all seemed to completely lose interest in attacking Tamatoa.

In the distance, Maui could see the fellow who had loaded one of the ship’s cannons turn the cannon to the left and let the cannonball shoot straight into the ocean with a loud **pow** that made Maui wince, but nonetheless didn’t seem to jar the stunned pirates.

Finally, Tally seemed to remember she was surrounded by her crew. Tamatoa still seemed to be ignoring them himself, but now that he’d found the human girl he’d dropped his frantic attitude and seemed happy just to be there. She turned to them, pulling the hand that still rested against his neck into herself, straightening out in front of the many eyes of the pirates before her.

“Oh!” She cleared her throat, “This is… This is Tamatoa, fellas. This is the… I mean _obviously_ he’s...”

A little voice spoke up from the crowd. “The crab monster!”

It was Jacob, who approached rather fearlessly. “Tally, you brought him! Wow!”

Tally grinned down at her young crewmate, but then turned to Tamatoa, and then Maui, with realization before looking back to Jacob. “I didn’t bring him.” She admitted to the bony powder boy. “I didn’t think he could even..” She turned back to Maui and Tamatoa, speaking pointedly at Maui “How… How did you get him here?”

Maui finally began to relax as it seemed like the situation was under control, even if the pirates were all still pretty flabbergasted. “It’s a _long_ story, Blondie.” Maui waved his hand dismissively with a deep sigh, as if it was tiring just to _imply_ how long the story actually was, let alone tell it.

She turned to Tamatoa now. _“Why_ are you here?”

“Well…” Tamatoa began, genuinely nonchalant, but playing it up anyway, “Heard you were ditching me for this little beach party. I came up to see what all the fuss was about.”

She just looked at him, confused, happy, taken aback, and seemed to start to try and say something when one of the other sailors spoke up.

“Yeah, fellas, it’s him!” Maui could see Tamatoa’s face twist into sickening satisfaction as the expressions on the pirates faces turned one-by-one from fear to awe, coming face-to-face with the creature who had been their subject matter for the last few weeks.

With Tally’s hands back at her sides, Tamatoa stood up to his full height with a grin and prideful pose. It was incredibly bizarre, watching the pirates watch Tally watching Tamatoa who was keeping an eye on them all.

“Yes, yes, hold your applause.” He spoke with articulation the pirates were obviously not expecting, since they all became twice as alert as he addressed the crowd. Maui looked over at Tally, who had folded her arms and was rolling her eyes at Tamatoa’s performance - but also grinning from ear to ear. Maui was kind of proud too - of himself, the pirates obviously had him to thank for his accurate descriptions of the giant crab, and had calmed down quicker for it. Not that ‘ship-sized crab with golden shell’ was all that hard to miss, but the more the demigod got to know the pirates the more he figured it was better safe than sorry.

“And, as promised, here’s the good luck charm everyone was so worked up about.” He reached up to pull the cross out of the pile on his back, and the pirates gasped at it, including Tally, who was apparently seeing it for the first time herself.

All stared and murmured about it for a while, watching it glint in the sunshine hanging from Tamatoa’s claw; when the crowd broke only for an older man to run into the clearing, pushing people out of the way. Gray hair and glasses, but tall, bulky, and dressed too intricately to be a regular crew member. He didn’t even look up at the giant crab before grabbing the cross still clutched in the pincer.

Tamatoa seemed so stunned by this reaction, or lack thereof, that he simply let it go, to Maui’s surprise, and the man, continuing to ignore the crab, crew and demigod too, adjusted his glasses, looking at the piece in great detail, apparently tuning the rest of the world out.

“Finally… finally!” He began to screech, and Maui watched Tamatoa’s jaw drop in surprise as the man turned to Tally and shoved the piece in her face; the other hand on her shoulder as if she wasn’t yet paying attention. “Look! Look at it, Tallulah! Amazing isn’t it? Can’t you just feel the magic? Tell me you can! I need you to tell me it’s real! Don’t keep your father waiting, girl!”

Tally blinked sort of shaken up, and looked from Tamatoa to her father (who still seemed unaware of his presence at all) rapidly before clearing her throat and giving her father her full attention. She placed her hands on the cross in his outstretched palm and nodded at him, the anticipation in his face stretched so tight Maui was surprised it didn’t just break straight in half when she confirmed his hope. With a ridiculous laugh, he held the cross to his chest with one hand and wrapped the other around Tally. In his grip, her gaze was free to move back to Tamatoa, and Maui wasn’t really sure what their silent communication was supposed to be, but it was obvious they were both pretty lost.

“Um, dad…” She started, and he finally released her from his hug and followed the line of her arm, gesturing up toward the giant crab, who he just sort of squinted at, and Maui wasn’t sure if he really couldn’t see well, or if he just couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Either way, he was silent.

“This is… Tamatoa… You know… The collector?”

Maui sustained a brief shot of amusement, threatening to break into a laugh, as he realized he was essentially watching just a girl introducing her date to her father; everything else aside.

Neither Tamatoa nor the Captain seemed to find it quite as amusing though, and they both stared at each other with a sort of distaste that Tally was obviously not thrilled about.

Maui intervened, stepping closer to the three. “Yeah, Cap,” He got the Captain’s attention, and gestured his thumb up at Tamatoa. “This is the guy Tally’s been talking about. You know...the… giant.. Monster...crab?”

Finally after a moment, the Captain adjusted his glasses and nodded up at the giant crab.

“This is the monster who tried to eat my daughter, is it?”

Maui froze, and Tamatoa sort of narrowed his eyes down at the captain, ready to dispute his inevitable criticism, but the Captain continued, “Ah! Yes! Fantastic! Well, thank you young…” He attempted to look Tamatoa up and down “...crustacean! You’ve given us a truly priceless gift!”

Maui wasn’t sure why he was surprised. As long as he’d spent around these pirates, the Captain was never a particularly practical fellow. Maui was also surprised to look up at Tamatoa, who was pursing his lips, obviously trying not to lecture the Captain about how many thousands of years older than him he was. Whatever the reason he had for holding back must have been pretty good. Surely it wasn’t as simple as trying to make a good impression on Tally’s father. It’s not as if he had any say in what Tamatoa could or couldn’t do. Maybe it was for Tally’s sake. No matter the reason, it was highly amusing to watch him try to be some kind of Tamatoa-style-polite.

As the Captain pulled his daughter away from the center of the crowd and off to the side, the pirates took the opportunity to gather around the giant crab in awe. Maui was already rolling his eyes. He was not prepared for how the pirates were obviously much more interested in Tamatoa himself than their treasure and what that would do the crab’s ego. But the look on Tamatoa’s face was pretty conflicted, looking down in happiness at his new admirers and then off to the side where Tally’s father pulled her further and further away.

 

* * *

 

Tally was _not_ happy to be pulled away from Tamatoa after the emotional rollercoaster of thinking she’d never see him again and then him just… appearing. On the beach. With Maui. And as her father pulled her away from the crowd, tucking the cross protectively into one of the inner pockets of his coat, she was trying pretty hard to keep in mind that he wasn’t just her father, but her Captain.

Finally they stopped at the edge of the surf, the ship nearly catching them in its shadow, and the Captain grabbed both her hands in excitement. The pause, however, allowed Tally to look over his shoulder at the commotion on the other edge of the beach. The pirates were enthusiastic, but it was obvious to Tally that they really had no idea who they were looking at. A friendly sea monster was what they were fascinated by, covered in treasure. They were looking a little too closely at his legs, claws, as if he was a recent capture, and the more pirates she noticed starting to follow the gleam of his back, realizing what exactly it was that was making him shine so brightly, the more she felt the tug to go mediate.

Her father yanked on her wrists to get her attention though, and turned back to him with a regretful sigh, only to see his face even more frantic and giddy than she’d expected - and she’d expected quite a lot.

“We got it!” He hissed, half-whispering, “My dear, we have Tucker’s Cross!”

“Y-Yeah Dad.” She agreed, “It’s great. Shouldn’t we go back and make sure everything’s okay?” She gestured toward the crowd, and her father looked at her with shock and confusion.

“What? No, my dear! We cast off! As soon as possible!” 

“What?”

“We have the cross! First thing tomorrow morning we can sail out, and avoid the reddies completely! This is perfect timing!”

“Dad we can’t leave!” She began, stunned and frantic, “If we leave, they’ll go after the islanders instead. That’s why we came all the way over here, remember? That's why we're on this side of the island in the first place! We have to stop them here.”

He backed up and pulled himself away from her with a scowl. “Don’t talk to me as if I am a child. I am your father and your captain, Tallulah. I know what’s best for this crew.”

She shrunk, just a little. “Yessir.”

“Now, let’s go tell everyone the good news!”

To Tally’s great relief, almost none of the pirates took her father’s new plan very well. She tried to stay out of it, as much as she would have liked to argue along with the pirates, but her father was accusing them of mutiny and struggling to convince them and she couldn’t help but feel for him too.

Tally’s conflictedness fell and turned to high alert when Maui stepped forward, an angry glint in his eye, coming close to her father to tower over him. “You’re not going _anywhere_ , old man.” He threatened sternly, and Tally’s heart was racing.

“I think that’s for my crew and I to decide, sir!” Her father retaliated, and Tally winced vicariously at every wrong turn. Maui grabbed him by the lapel.

“No. Those pirates are here for _you_. The villagers have been nothing but kind to you, and you want to leave them to your enemy? I don’t think so.” And with that he shoved him back.

With more relief, many of the other pirates came up to defend not her father, but Maui. When she glanced over at Tamatoa, still standing on the edge of the beach, she threw him one look of tentative happiness that they had drawn this visitation out after all. Giving the pirates a chance to fall more in love with the island and the people here. Unforeseen but incredibly welcome consequences.

With this, Tamatoa stepped forward, and everyone froze for a moment as his massive presence cut into the conflict. He leaned his head down to look the Captain in the eye.

“I hate to be the bearer of bad news.” He began calmly, “But I don’t think you guys are going anywhere until my sculpture is perfect.” He looked over the crowd and then back to her father. “That was our deal. Tallulah told me pirates have honor. Are you seriously gonna make a liar out of her, man?”

The Captain shook his head, confused and put off by being called ‘man’ by a giant monster crab who was speaking about his daughter with much too much familiarity. But he looked at the crowd of pirates behind him who were all nodding to each other in agreement, and after a moment of grinding his teeth, he finally conceded, much to everyone’s relief.

“Fine.” He let out a breath that was not nearly as agreeable as Tally would have liked it to be, but he continued nonetheless, “We’ll stay.”

He didn’t specify whether they would stay until the sculpture was done, or until they had fought the pirates off, and Tally suspected her father was too cornered to make such a choice. With mixed feelings, she watched the pirates disperse and chat amongst themselves, considering - as they were oft to do - that they should celebrate tonight.

Her father was resistant to the idea, unable to see what there was to celebrate about, but Tally could see it. Of course, the pirates grabbed every excuse to celebrate - a full moon was enough. But she suspected the pirates were ultimately celebrating being able to make their own choice - the tension of her father’s whim having been cut had opened a whole new string of possibilities, including staying even longer on the island, assuming they would win their battle. Getting the cross was probably on the list, but it was her father’s victory above all else, and even for him it had been soured. The buzz in the air from simply having Tamatoa here, in front of their eyes was undoubtedly part of the excitement, and Tamatoa encouraging it as they returned to their camp was quite a motivator, trying to act like he was an expert on parties, but mostly giving giddy, untested suggestions. She watched her sailors gather excitedly around the crab just as the sun began setting, and she was sure they were basically seeing Tamatoa as Dionysus, the very vision of excess, and she was internally laughing at what his reaction would be if she told him that; but she would let the pirates show it with their enthusiasm instead. (No doubt thanks to the silent threats he’d made to her father, they pirates also seemed to stop whispering to each other about how to steal from his back when he was occupied, thank god.)

Thinking of her father though, she watched him retreat to the ship in a huff, not following the pirates back to their camp, and there was a knot in her chest. She stood for a moment, staring at the vessel her father disappeared into for just a moment before a great shadow fell over her. Turning around, there was Tamatoa, smiling down at her.

She stared up at him for a moment, trying to process the fact that her father’s presence had made her so tense, while presence of a giant monster crab relaxed her nerves immeasurably.

“Hi.” She practically whispered. “I’m going to see if my dad is okay.”

With an amused, exasperated shake of his head and a challenging look, in one swift motion a claw came down, snatched her up and dropped her on his back. She landed with a yelp.

“Hey!” She protested grabbing the edge of his shell where the flesh of his neck met the armor and stood on her toes to look down at him. He humored her, turning his head back and inward to look up at her as he turned away from the ship and began walking down the beach.

“I came all the way up here from Lalotai in a really, _really_ epic expedition just to come see you, _ma souris_. You’re not getting away that easily.”

She almost flushed, but the warm breeze of the evening blowing through her hair so high up off the ground calmed her, and she sighed instead, closing her eyes for just a moment to let herself enjoy the peace of the moment before speaking again.

“You came all the way here for me?” She challenged with a grin.

“Well… I was a little curious what your little pirate crew were actually like. And to see my sculpture, though…” He glanced over to where he saw the drab little thing sitting on the beach and grimaced at it before throwing his attention back to the girl on his shoulder, but looking forward as he walked. “I probably could have gone without it.”

She chuckled.

“You know they’re gonna have to re-do it, right?” He added with a quirk of his antennae, letting it fall back toward Tally. She allowed it this time, and let it search her affectionately, trying not to giggle too girlishly.

“Oh yeah, I know. And it’s gonna take a while, right?” She challenged with a happy sigh.

It was Tamatoa’s turn to laugh, with a sort of joy she hadn’t heard from him until now, “Oh yeah, it’s gonna take a loooong time. I deserve the best, you know.” He turned an eyestalk to wink at her, and they both laughed.

As they rounded a rock formation to the sandy ground behind it, just a little bit far enough from the scene they’d left for the waves to be louder than the commotion from the pirates, Tamatoa finally plucked her off his back and set her down on the ground.

She was pretty underdressed compared to how she usually visited him, with all her protective clothing and equipment. Now she was just earrings, bracelets, and what were basically underclothes. Sleeveless shirt and men’s trousers. She wondered if Tamatoa even noticed, or cared. She sat on the sand, relaxing in front of the enormous crab who did the same, and just sat there, smiling at her. She couldn’t help but give him a smile with some doubt in it. After a moment, she spoke.

“Sorry I didn’t tell you what was going on.” She sighed, running a hand through her hair. “Things just went all to hell over here. The pirates out there are coming on behalf of the aristocrats we stole from, I’m sure of it. We’ve dealt with them before, it’s gonna be, well… We just have a lotta preparing to do.”

“I could help you.” Tamatoa shrugged like it was nothing.

“What?” Her whole face lit up, “Really? Don’t screw around with me, Goldie. If you’re messing with me I’m gonna boil you piece by piece, I swear to god-”

Tamatoa rolled his eyes at the ridiculous threat. “I’m not messing with you, babe. I’ll… lend a hand. I kinda promised Maui I would. I don’t think he would have brought me all the way up here otherwise. But listen, can’t we talk about something else?”

“Like how the hell you got up here in the first place?” She suggested, eyebrows raised, and he lifted his claw to make a dismissive gesture.

“No, not like that, like… Well, we could always talk about _me_. That never gets old.” He winked, and she rolled her eyes with a smile.

“Oh right, _never_ gets old.” She replied with a chuckle, “Well… “ She looked him over and he acted like he could feel her eyes on him, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth as he was admired in her familiar way. “I _did_ notice...”

“Uh-huh?” He bit his lip excitedly.

“The sunset was _made_ to mix it’s colors with yours. I can’t believe I never thought about what you would look like in a sunset. As always, you outshine it, Goldie.”

She watched the enormous crab sigh deeply, like he’d just satisfied his own addiction, and she looked at him in mock impatience.

“How was that?”

“Perfect.”

They spent the next few hours talking about everything that had happened. The absurd way Maui had actually brought Tamatoa out of Lalotai, which Tally didn’t actually fully believe. How ridiculous it was that Tamatoa had warned her father not to make a ‘liar out of her’ when a liar was exactly what she was. The visit Tamatoa had gotten, and how in order to make good on his threats she would have to come up with some real hexes for him, laughing as they came up with crazier and crazier hypothetical magical punishments for Tamatoa’s enemies. What she had really meant when she’d mentioned living forever, followed up by Tamatoa trying with fervor to convince her at seeking out eternal youth actually was worth it, even if she would lose her soul in the process. What would she rather have, a pleasant afterlife, or a long, fabulous, immortal life with him? Her inability to give him a straight answer was enough for him for now. Finally asking her what prize she would seek out if she had Tamatoa in tow, disappointing him by destroying some pleasant hypotheticals, but making him pretty happy again when they thought of a replacement expedition for each. Eventually, despite the lack of an end to the conversation, the sun had fallen too far down, and Tamatoa, pouting, let Tally lead him back to the camp.

When they approached, Tally watched with confusion as all the pirates turned to look at them wide-eyed. No, not them - Tamatoa. Some of them even stood up, and everyone was silent. She was totally thrown off, until one sailor finally added “Ho-lee Jesus.” And she turned around to see her crab glowing from his toes all the way to his antennae.

If Tally could convince herself before this moment that her romantic interest in Tamatoa was all a game, and she found him beautiful like a painting rather than a person, those justifications fell away all at once. Her heart jumped into her throat and her face flushed as she stared, wide-eyed at the giant crab. She’d never seen anything like it. Like _him_. Her shocked face followed all the markings until she finally settled on his face, which looked down at her with incredible pride and smugness.

“Told you I’d look good in the moonlight, babe.”


	10. Three Sheets To The Wind

Before he was allowed to join the beginning festivities, Tamatoa was forced into pretty grumpy straits, watching Maui, Tally and the pirates talk back and forth about a place for him to actually stay. With all his shimmer, he wouldn’t be much of a surprise to the incoming pirates, and at his size it wasn’t all that simple to just cover him up, nor did he approve of that idea in the first place. It took Moana’s arrival to acquire the knowledge that there was a cove nearby that would probably suit him, and though Tamatoa really didn’t like the idea of being stored away like a secret weapon rather than accommodated like the magnificent being he was pretty sure he still was (also, maybe he kind of had hoped he could stay the night near the pirate camp, for reasons) eventually he conceded. If he wasn’t so impatient to have some fun he probably wouldn’t have been as annoyed at the house-hunting expedition, but at least ultimately, he realized, he got his own room. After it was settled, Tamatoa was grateful to make his way back to the camp where pirate’s night was starting up, however inelegant.

For the first half of the night, Tamatoa had what was maybe not exactly the time of his life, but it definitely wasn’t bad, especially for his first night on the surface in who knows how long. The pirates didn’t throw as purely fun or as beautiful a party as he knew the islanders often did, and Tamatoa wasn’t sure if he and all his color in the dark felt out of place, or if it was better to be the center of attention. The one thing he couldn’t deny them was that they went hard. Only an hour in there was a drunken fistfight on the beach that accumulated bets and cheering. The giant crab couldn’t help but think of how much they were like animals in their own right. Maybe Tally’s interest in him wasn’t as unlikely as he thought.

Some islanders attended the party too and with them brought a little bit of food, and some sense of class whether that was their intention or not. Friends of the pirates who they hiked across the island to grab. The pirates were content to drink and laugh in the dark around a campfire, but luckily the islanders had more foresight and brought actual, reliable light sources, which for some reason everyone was laughing about. Tamatoa didn’t see the humor, noting that humans get intoxicated much too easily.

He was also surprised to find that some of the pirates actually had instruments with them, and a decent catalogue of songs in their head. He couldn’t resist, he was the guest of honor after all, and Tamatoa had to show off, earning him exactly the kind of admiration he had been hoping for, especially from Tally who he pretended not to notice swooning, just a little.

He also noticed the plan he’d generously cultivated for Maui was working, as Moana was clinging lovingly to the demigod and absolutely fawning over him, enough to make Tamatoa a little sick. Every once in a while she gestured Tamatoa’s way, trying to be covert about it, but Tamatoa was pretty aware, and entertained himself thinking about what exactly Maui had told her to explain how he’d ‘convinced him’ to come help the pirates. Whatever it was, Tamatoa was sure he could hold being the better wingman over Maui for a long time.

Besides having an audience for a few songs - some of which were his own, and that he got the pirates to improvise for with minor success - it was also richly satisfying to watch Tally have fun with her crew. She’d told him a little about the crew on her visits, but they didn’t really interest him at all, at the time. However, above ground, watching how Tally interacted with each in a slightly different way, made them much more intriguing to watch. They were a part of Tally’s life. Surely not nearly as important as  _ he _ was to her now, but a part of her nonetheless. He watched her dreamily, laughing, talking, even dancing with them, the women humoring as many of the men that they could, carrying mental dance cards and chatting amongst themselves about each pass around the fire, men completely unaware of their judgements, whether by their own choice or drunkenness. Tamatoa almost couldn’t believe the pirates had this much alcohol with them, let alone this much to be able to get rid of in one night, but he wasn’t complaining. It was funny to watch them stumble around, slurring their words and being twice as foolish as they seemed when he first appeared to them. They tried to offer some to him, and he warned them of the futility of it, but he humored them for a little while, ultimately disappointing them with how sober he remained. Some impressed, challenged him to future drinking contests, which Tamatoa thought was pretty funny. Most notably, the group of pirates who had brought the rum off the ship in the first place sloppily promised him that someday,  _ someday _ they would find a way to marinate him in alcohol the way they did themselves despite his size. A feat that to them rivaled climbing mount everest, with just as much glory in it, if not more. Tamatoa really didn’t know what to think about this, but eventually those same pirates left him alone to hang on each other and weep about how close their friendships were, and he figured it wasn’t really worth planning for.

After Tally had downed a few drinks herself, she tried to dance with Tamatoa too, or at least, she convinced him to briefly point his claw straight down in the dirt for her to pretend with. Mostly though, she seemed to underestimate how mesmerized she would be by the bright blue glow of it. She looked pretty lovely in his own glow, if he did say so himself. Not that she had dressed any differently, or even cleaned up since they had returned to the pirate camp, but her hair was down, her arms exposed and her face flushed kind of a pretty color. He wasn’t sure if it was because of the rum, or because of his attention, but he was pretty content to assume it was the latter. Her jewelry glinted in the firelight, bare feet in the sand rather than her ratty old boots, and most of all she just looked happy. When her face would break out into a smile, even if it wasn't because of him, he just... really liked to see it. He couldn't place why. It wasn't like it was something that turned him on, or good for his ego, but nonetheless every time her expression changed, he found himself waiting for that smile again; humming along to every song the musicians played, even when the night went on and the melodies became more and more off-key. 

Eventually as the reaching yellow fire sank into red embers, the crackle of it challenged by the sound of the waves in the distance and the pirate songs turned absolutely _ pathetically  _ sad, loud bugs singing along from the brush, he was happy to turn his attention to a quickly sobering Tally to continue the conversation they'd left behind.

Tallulah admitted that Maui had told him about his leg, to which Tamatoa just scoffed annoyedly, and asked him why wouldn't he just molt, to grow it back? Tamatoa thought the answer was obvious; but it pained him a little realizing that it just wouldn’t be the same sacrifice it might have been when he was really proud of his collection. In the charged intimacy of the atmosphere past midnight, somehow she’d found her way to sitting on his claw that was up under his chin, letting her lean against his neck and sort of trace the bioluminescent markings of his face with her little human fingers, eyes glassy in pure, silent admiration of him that he could see up close, now that she was against his face, and the meticulous attention made his chest feel tight - in a good way; as much as maybe her touch became dangerously close to a ticklish sensation as they spoke.

He traded his story about his complicated history with Maui for the story of her mother’s death, how they each created themselves. What legacy they had, chosen or given. Tamatoa was interested with how his attempt to imitate Maui in his youth seemed to be sort of the opposite of her attempt to imitate her mother. Tamatoa to prove he could surpass what he used to be and become something  _ like _ Maui, Tally to prove she could expand  _ past _ her mother and not make the same mistakes, to learn from her mother, be her own person.

After her arm seemed to get tired on Tamatoa’s face, he grabbed them both and held them out straight with his other claw, letting his eyestalks curl inward to examine the tattoos she had herself. They were nothing like the ones the islanders had. Sloppier, less elegant, spread out with no rhyme or reason. Tattoos that didn’t decorate the body, didn’t seem like they were made for her, but just slapped onto her skin wherever they fell. To Tamatoa they looked like what a child might draw rather than an actual tattoo artist’s work, but she seemed to like them anyway, and as she explained each one, whether it had personal or superstitious meaning, or because she just had liked the design, he became kind of charmed by them. The wicked imagery, a snake, a human skull, jewels and twisty flowers all did suit her, even if he wouldn’t recommend anyone else to her artists.

As she relaxed against him, her legs fell into the crevice between his pincers much, much too trustingly, her hair laid out across the side of his face, and he could feel her breathing in and out. It was just a little bit too intimate, especially with the light burning in the window of the captain’s quarters off the bay. He wasn’t  _ scared _ of Captain Cutter, obviously, but he didn’t really want to get Tally into any trouble. His being a giant monster crab had obviously nothing to do with it, it was just that he had challenged the Captain and he would be very surprised if he hadn’t created some resentment there. Still, he had no idea to know if he was watching, and it wasn’t enough of a concern to convince him not to enjoy her proximity anyway. Probably nothing was, really.

She seemed to have the same sort of affectionate thoughts in her mind, or at least a variant, turning her eyes up to look at his as best she could from where she lay, the shaky breath she took before speaking was odd when her voice came out so calm and even.

“You know, when you said ‘see me in the moonlight’, I thought that was a come on.”

Tamatoa blinked down at her for a moment before it hit him, and he laughed, maybe just a little too loud for the quieting atmosphere around the fire; and she let her hand lay on him quick and flat in a little mock slap as she turned away embarrassedly. “Shut up. How was I supposed to know you glowed in the dark?”

“You _ thought  _ it was a come on, or you  _ hoped _ it was a come on?” He teased.

“I hoped it  _ wasn’t! _ You had just tried to eat me, remember?” She raised her hand that had been flat against him to gently poke him in the same place to emphasize her accusation; but he just chuckled again, just a little less loudly.

“There’s one other thing…” She added, looking away from him.

Tamatoa sort of perked up, a serious feeling pulling at the laughter.

“You know how you wrote me that note?”

“Yeah I  _ know _ .” Tamatoa laughed, “It took me like five hours just to get those little paper pieces folded up small enough to fit into those bottles. Hope you appreciated it babe, because I think I got carpal tunnel syndrome. They never make  _ anything _ giant-crab sized.”

She smiled, but continued, “Maui thought, well, it made Maui think we’d been, y’know, knockin’ boots.”

She looked up to see his reaction but found him staring at her blankly instead. After a moment, Tamatoa finally spoke up. “He thought we were  _ what  _ was it?”

“Fuckin’.” She conceded with a sigh.

“Oh. Why? Did you say something to him that was questionable or something?”

“What? No!” Tally scoffed, “He just thought it was suspicious that you sent me something like that after I had met you for the first time. I guess it would have made more sense to him if during that first time we also had… a first time.” She sort of winced at her own terrible wordplay, and Tamatoa would have like to laugh and tease her and take away the tension, but he was still pretty confused, and trying not to be flustered by the combination of words coming out of her mouth regardless of the order.

After a moment, he looked off with a little scowl and a sigh.

“Maui doesn’t understand _ romance _ .” Tamatoa insisted with a little flourish of the claw that wasn’t holding Tally, and to his relief, she laughed along with him.

“But you do, hm?” She continued. The space between them was still filled with the tension inevitably created by any kind of talk of sex, but they were back in banter-mode, something they could both handle with much more grace, and Tamatoa was content with it.

“Well  _ obviously _ .” Tamatoa replied, sounding offended, “That note was the epitome of romance!”

“I’ve definitely never received anything that nice before.” She offered as proof, sighing and leaning against him with her elbow this time, holding her head away from his face to look up at his eyes with a grin.

“Naturally.” Tamatoa winked at her, but his voice came out drier than he’d planned. With a swallow, he ignored the hiccup, and cleared his throat instead.

To keep the tension secondary, or maybe because he was genuinely tired, Tamatoa finally stood up, leaving the pile of drunk, sleeping pirates to walk toward the cove, pirate girl in tow. He grabbed a lit lantern off the ground and brought it to Tally’s lap for her to use going back, and she was clearly a little stunned at his thoughtfulness. Another point for romance, he decided. They continued to talk, even over the rush of the surf they skimmed to find the opening to the cove, her on the edge of his shell, legs hanging down beside his neck, leaning forward on his head a bit, to continue conversation.

“See, unlike Maui I  _ am _ a romantic. I mean...” he took a deep breath, “If I was going to have sex with you, I’d at least send the nice note  _ first _ .”

There was just a moment of silence before she spoke again, but it was enough.

“Well you did, didn’t you?” She continued softly; and oh, by Te Fiti, he thought he would have been more prepared for this. He tried to maintain his casual pace, his even expression, even if his face was ultimately turned away from her. He pretended to calmly scan the edge of the beach in the dark, against his own glow,  to maintain their direction, but his heart was racing.

“Well, yeah.” He replied, “Like I said, I am a romantic.”

“So what comes next, for the romantic coconut crab?” She asked, sort of teasing, but he could hear the unsure sound underneath, and it didn’t really calm him as much as it struck him as endearing, and made his temperature rise that much more. “Would you just go straight to bed, or are there other romantic requirements that need to be met?”

“Well…” He tried to stay comfortable in the bit, “Maybe a few things.”

“Uh-huh?” She grinned, “Like what?”

“I’d… Want to have a few conversations with her too. Get to know each other a little. Find out how good she is at flattery. Very, very important. It gets you everywhere, you know.” He lectured.

She chuckled, and interestingly it was her laughter that seemed to calm him. “I  _ have  _ heard that!” She agreed.

“I  _ guess _ I’d hike around Lalotai with her, even it gets a little boring. Might be a good date, you never know.”

“It sounds good to me,” She continued, “I hear it’s just  _ full _ of magic and mystery.”

“I’d meet her father, which might be a bit unusual for everyone involved, but it’s, um, it’s a proper thing to do, I think.” He mused, finally nearing the cove. As she helped him find the openings with which to actually fit him inside to the much quieter area, she continued.

“Very proper.” She agreed, and he rolled his eyes at this one, trying not to smile too big. 

“If I really liked her, I mean only if I really,  _ really _ liked her, maybe I’d give her something. Like… I don’t know… Just a little good luck charm or something like that. Nothing special, but something classy, obviously.” He added as he sat down in the sand, cold from the dark of the night, but preparing to warm it up with his own body heat for sleep, and she stood before him as he got comfortable.

“Sounds like a lucky girl.” She smiled, and yawned.

As he settled, she tentatively reached out and touched his cheek gently, and he gave her a bemused look, but allowed it, and watched her sigh deeply, looking up at his eyestalks. 

“Goodnight, Goldie.”

She stayed that way for just a moment before bringing her arm back to her body, and using both to hold the lantern, turning to walk back to the pirate camp.

Perhaps he would have been unsatisfied with the way the interaction ended, but in all honestly Tamatoa was  _ tired _ . It had been one very, very long day, and the moment he became comfortable in his spot was the moment he fell asleep, an immovable hill in a very necessary state of complete and utter unconsciousness.


	11. Anchor's Aweigh

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **WARNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**  
>  explicit crab/pirate sex happens, it is very ooey and gooey, don't say i didn't warn you because I just did, with a warning that says 'warning!!!!!'  
> also: anatomy is meaningless

Unfortunately for Tally, her exhaustion played no part in her ability to sleep. She’d had such a fun, easy night, everything had been so nice. She didn’t expect to lie down in her tent and have to engage in battle in her own mind.

She had been so sure she would never see Tamatoa again. She of course felt bad about sending Maui to explain the situation, and would have liked to go herself, but he was… a giant, talking, man-eating, monstrous crab. Rationally, she knew - or at least she _thought_ she knew that they would inevitably have to part. As much as her emotions betrayed her, the fact that Maui had left in her place toward Tamatoa to tie the end she’d left frayed had helped her distance herself a little. She was sad, but she was trying to follow that dreamlike feeling that came with being in Lalotai, and leave him there. The realm of monsters was just that, a different realm, so it wasn’t like she was somehow going to be missing out on spending time with him when she would leave. What more could they have done? It wasn’t as if Tamatoa was offering her some kind of lifestyle change. He wasn’t a well-off, intelligent and kind gentleman she’d fallen into an affair with in a beachside town who had invited her to marry him, leave her dangerous life of piracy, have children, live to a ripe old age. If she had turned down an offer like that, maybe she would have reason to regret the choice later when she was in the burning wreckage of a ship in the middle of the ocean with cannon balls flying, swallowing salt water and trying just to not drown. Not that Tally was particularly interested in leaving her life of adventure, but she wasn’t stupid. Turning down a life like that would be basically insane. A life of comfort and stability and social opportunity with someone who would support and provide for her was nothing to scoff at.

Tamatoa was a crab. He was an unbelievably huge, terrifying, obsessive, ancient, unstable _monster_ of a crab. As much fun as she’d had with him, and as much as she would treasure it forever, she knew his company alone wasn’t enough for her to regret leaving him. He wasn’t offering her anything in the first place, let alone something particularly inviting. He was a nonhuman entity living in a dreamworld who did nothing all day but sleep, search for shiny things, and occasionally fight - which, okay, was what she did with her crew too, but there was always opportunity for more just over the horizon. With Tamatoa, there was no opportunity, just more of the same, and she would have loved to have more of the same for a little while longer, but at the end of the day, she knew they weren’t destined to be in each others lives for good.

Or at least, she _had_ known that. Him showing up on the surface, the human world, the very fact that he proved he could, let alone the fact that he had done it for _her_ ; changed everything. She wasn’t entirely sure in what way yet, it was so sudden, but everything was out of sync, thrown on its side, in some kind of fantastic, beautiful way.

She wouldn’t have expected Tamatoa to be anything but set in his ways, and here he was, acting like all of this was no big deal. Trying to convince her to start a quest for immortality just to spend that time with him. Offering to help her crew. Giving her father the talisman he’d been seeking. Singing songs with her friends. He was here. He was _here._ Just around the bend. She couldn’t see him behind the wall of the cove, but the very fact that she knew he was there was keeping her heart working much too hard.

She thought Lalotai was dreamlike. Seeing Tamatoa’s enormous shadow fight the sunset, watching his pure magic light up the dark, her family and friends right beside her - _this_ was dreamlinke. She still couldn’t process it. She was lightheaded and elated and confused and god…

She really, _really_ wanted to go back down to that cove and absolutely exhaust him.

Was Tamatoa a crab? Yes. Did she have a twisted, unholy lust for crabs? Who knows. Was he unbelievably, ridiculously large? Absolutely. But noone, _noone_ had ever done anything for her that Tamatoa had done. Noone had ever given her their attention like he did, let alone crossed realms to do it.

Unfortunately, they were both already pretty exhausted. If her heart wasn’t racing, surely she’d be dead to the world right now, and it had been pretty obvious that Tamatoa hadn’t been any less wiped, for all she could tell, anyway. She would have to let it go for now. The fact that she didn’t even have the first clue as to _how_ she might go about tiring out a giant monster crab did nothing but amplify her impatience. She couldn’t fantasize about something she didn’t know. It might also have been easier to do if she could guess whether or not he even… wanted that. Sure, he’d flirted with her, they’d implied it, but it was one thing to talk, it was another thing to do it. She could only imagine it would be like a whale fucking a dolphin. Or maybe a sea turtle and a minnow. Whatever the metaphor, not exactly the vision of pleasure for either participant. Just because she thought there might be some slack tide didn’t mean there actually was, let alone enough of a chance that he would even want to try.

With affection, lust, uncertainty and anticipation all fighting for control, it took quite a lot of focus for Tally to actually fall asleep. Luckily, pure exhaustion lent a hand, and eventually she was out. For a while.

Her sleep was restless, and as soon as her eyes caught a glimpse of morning light, the idea of waiting for the sake of waiting was no longer convincing enough for her to stay at the camp, and grabbing her boots in her hand, stepping over sleeping pirates, she began a very uncertain barefoot trek down the beach. The cold of morning was just short of bracing, and it made her feel like the day was agreeing with her, convincing her to be as awake as she was. It was a beautiful morning in fact, but she didn’t slow to admire it. Eventually she made it to the opening to the cove and climbed inside.

She half expected Tamatoa to just not be there at all. Whether because this all really was a dream, or because it was just too good to be true that he was here, and naturally, by fate’s hand, something would have happened to take him away. A pirate _hoping_ to find a giant, dangerous creature around the bend…. Surely the novelty of all of this would wear out sooner or later.

To her relief and happiness, he was not gone, just very much asleep. Sunken little bit into the sand, but just enough to stay warm, his claws were up in front of his face, his antennae falling over them almost completely lax. As she approached, she could see his face too, buried behind his arms, and she couldn’t help but note how sweet his sleeping expression was. She almost hated to wake him up.

Almost.

“Tamatoa?” She asked one side of his head, but he remained motionless. Walking all the way around his arms to the other side of his head, she wasn’t deterred. “Do you even have ears..?” She asked the sleeping crab. “GOLDIE!” She finally shouted, and he stirred, but didn’t wake up.

Now she wandered around to the front of him again and decided a tug on his antennae would do it. It worked a little too well however, because he awoke with a start and his face twisted in pain as he quickly tried to blink his sleep away.

“Hey!” He yelped, seeming unable to keep his eyes open. He bent his eyestalks to rub them gently across the side of his claw, trying to help his eyes adjust to the morning light, and she realized it was probably so hard for him because he just wasn’t used to facing morning light at all. Even in his struggle, he seemed to finally realize it was Tally who was standing in front of him though, and didn’t hide his distaste.

“What gives?” He demanded, reaching up to grab the abused appendage protectively. He winced, sucking air through a grimace as he made sure everything was in order. “That hurt!”

“Sorry.” She said, wholly genuine, but happy to have him awake anyway.

He squinted around himself, trying with sensitive eyes to assess his surroundings. The sky was pale, but barely lit, grey, blue and pink, the sun just peeking out from the horizon. Still dark, but not dark enough to show his bioluminescence anymore. The sea was foggy and opaque and as he turned back to Tally, she was kind of surprised to see an angry look on his face.

“Do you not _see_ how early it is?!” He cried, “It’s like… Well it’s just very, very early!”

“I couldn’t sleep.” She admitted, and he just looked at her with half-awake confusion.

“And you decided to drag me down with you, did you?” He whined, “I was sleeping really well, babe!” He finally adjusted enough to relax his eyes open, blinking a few times in relief, and finally getting a look at her in the hazy morning light. She was pretty much dressed the same, except for hilariously messy bedhead, which he couldn’t help but crack a smile at. She seemed to completely ignore it though, to his interest.

“Well, it’s kind of your fault, so yeah. I’m definitely dragging you down with me.”

“ _My_ fault?” He asked, genuinely offended, “What could I _possibly_ have done to be responsible for your failure to stay asleep? You know if you really want my help with this whole pirate spat thing you should seriously let me sleep, you know, so I can be at my best? What could be more important than that?”

“I need to ask you something.” She nodded, putting her hands on the edge of his pincer and leaning inward to look at him more closely. Seeing sincerity in her face, he seemed to start losing his frustration, and blinked at her curiously.

“What’s that then?”

“Do you want me? I mean, really?” She asked, her voice cracking just a little, and to her relief he didn’t immediately laugh at her or look at her with disgust. His face fell, and he swallowed dryly. His tiredness seemed to halfway vanish, now he was straightened up, alert and tense, and he looked at her for a moment, mouth open, seemingly unable to come up with an answer right away. When he did, his voice was frantic. One would never have guessed he’d just woken up.

“Well… Y-yeah… Of course I do.” He paused, just for a split second, leaning his neck back down to her level before his tone became accusatory. “But babe, you’re a tease! You have to know that, right? Just because I’m not human doesn’t mean I don’t… I mean, we have, kind of a connection, right? I’m definitely not imagining things, this is… You and me, I mean… ”

She leaned forward to kiss the corner of his mouth, and he trailed off. Not struck silent as much as taking this as permission to stop the task of defending himself, which wasn’t going all that well. He watched her patiently as she pulled away and looked at him with a weak smile.

“I want you too.” She assured him, and she watched him force himself not to change expressions, his jaw moving to bite the inside of his lip. She thought maybe she saw some red blossoming on his face, but she could have been imagining it. Did crabs blush?

“Yeah?” He finally smirked, but it didn’t really come across as self-assured as it seemed like he wanted, somewhere instead between amused and relieved; maybe not yet willing to settle on contentedness.

“Yeah.” She sighed putting her hand on his face again, higher up, not really an affectionate caress like before, more like she was holding him still so she could examine his face, as if he would move anyway otherwise.

“Is that wrong?” She asked.

He chuckled nervously, “Does it matter?”

She rolled her eyes, but fought a little smile.

“I don’t even know what you’ve… got,” she gestured to his abdomen, “Down there.”

This time his grin had no hesitation in it, with real confidence, he lowered his eyes at her. “Do you want to find out, _ma souris?”_

The dark blush that decorated her face all at once definitely made her feel as though she had lost any upper hand she previously had by being the one to initiate this as he smiled at her with smug assuredness. Quickly, she cleared her throat.

“Uh, I don’t know, do I?” She quirked an eyebrow at him even in all her disorientation.

He frowned. “Rude.”

“Sorry,” She sighed, “I just… You can see why I’d want to get _you_ in bed.” She paused, “Not that you’d fit.”

He rolled his eyes at her frankly unnecessary joke.

“You are… Incredible. Definitely the sexiest crab I have ever met. Hands down.”

This one earned her a proud grin.

“And I’m, well,” She put her hand on her chest in a little regal pose, “I mean, I’m adorable.”

He chuckled, “That’s very true.”

“But I’m um…” She looked him up and down, and spent a little too much time lingering over his body, not like how he was used to her admiring him, but with apprehension.

“...Tiny, is that it?” He offered.

“Yeah.” She sighed, “Or maybe _you’re_ just too big.” She offered with a poke. “Either way… Do we really know this is what we want, if so much is against us?”

To her surprise, he remained smiling, apparently not agreeing with her pessimistic sentiment.

“I can’t _believe_ I’m really hearing the Adventure-Seeking Dangerous Piratess Seer Tallulah Lauren Cutter talking about backing out of a challenge.” He clicked his tongue, and her mouth dropped open in shock. He grinned at her with twice as much pride, and she clenched her fists defensively, taking a step back to address him with mock formality.

“That is _slander_ , sir!” She demanded, her own smile threatening to crack into a laugh.

“Is it? You sure?” He asked, still grinning, “I don’t see you taking any initiative. I’d say it’s a _very_ accurate observation.”

“It is not!” She cried.

“Prove it.” He suggested, and with a determined, disbelieving look, she stretched her arms to take his face in her grasp and pressed her lips to the crevice between his.

After a moment of humoring her, he pulled his face back, chuckling.

“Really?”

“What?”

“Kissing, babe?” He curled his eyestalks down to try and give her an incredulous look.

“So?” She didn’t let go of his face as she spoke.

“Crabs don’t kiss! _Monsters_ don’t kiss. You know this is the same mouth I use to eat your fellow humans, right?”

“Uh-huh.” Excuses, excuses. “Well maybe it’s time you should use it for something a little more productive, aye? Give back.”

He rolled his eyes, but cracked a smile. “I can think of some better uses for it,” He began, and her whole body froze with the thrill of the implication for a moment, “But okay, fine. We’ll do it your way. Just don’t be surprised when you realize how futile it is.”

“Oh my god, just shut up and kiss me, would you? Crazy crab.”

For a while, he remained still, his mouth and eyes closed so she could pepper his lips with her ‘futile’ little human kisses. His expression still held the air of incredulousness, as if she would give up at any moment.

To his surprise, eventually she pressed her mouth directly on his as if there was any possible way he could reciprocate, but instead of pretending to kiss him like she would another human, her tongue poked out, slipping just a little past the dry area of his lips, in between them both to swipe across the beginning wetness where the sensitive inside of his mouth began.

To her delight, he reacted to this pretty radically, opening his eyes and stifling a gasp as he stared down at her in surprise. He seemed to let his face fall into complete frankness, his lips parted, conceding to how his large front teeth naturally encouraged them open, his eyes wide and looking down at her with nothing but wonder, and her heart skipped a beat. She grinned.

“Futile, you said?” She asked, ending the sentence with her mouth on the edge of his top lip, and he let his eyes flutter shut, and caught himself before letting out a large sigh, so he wouldn’t blow her off of him completely. In appreciation for the restraint, she giggled, her nose pressing itself affectionately into the side of his face before her lips went back to exploring.

With pride, she was very much enjoying how he seemed to be a lot more tense now, bracing himself for whatever new sensations were headed his way, since he apparently hadn’t expected the first one at all. Not wanting to disappoint him she was happy to experiment a little, letting her mouth close around his top lip, then the bottom, pulling on it as much as she guessed was necessary to get him to actually feel it, being more gentle and thorough at the corners of his mouth where it felt less silly to do so, letting her tongue run along his lips at her whim.

He seemed to forget his sentiment about the futility of kissing a crab monster, or maybe he just changed his mind and hoped she wouldn’t call him out on it, but after a little while he tentatively started to reciprocate, and gently she ran her hands across the skin of his face in encouragement as he really did try. An attempt to get to her mouth included the rest of her face too many times in a row for him not to give it up for other choices. Kissing her the way she’d kissed him wasn’t really an option, but kissing the top of her head was. Her cheek, her ear, her nose, her eye, her shoulders. He made a serious effort to capture each angle of her neck, tricky as it was for him to find the right way to fit his lips under her jaw, but it also seemed to be the most rewarding to him as well, because when he would find the right angle and his lips met her skin there, she gasped and mewled in appreciation, her hands grasping at him with a little more fervor, and she felt his face heat up against her flesh as her reaction continued.

As he became bolder in his experimenting with ways to kiss her, her focus on enjoying is affection and creativity distracted her from the antennae falling down on either side of her head until she cracked an eye and almost jumped. She really didn’t know anything about antennae, other than she was pretty sure she had heard somewhere they were used to smell? Whatever they were for, their gentle exploration was intoxicating. She giggled as they seemed to roam curiously, dipping into her hair, her cleavage, down her spine, and she was sure he was trying to make her shiver on purpose. Sometimes they downright tickled and she couldn’t hold back laughing. Tamatoa didn’t really have a reaction one way or another when she did, other than to smile against her with affection, and a kind of pride she couldn’t totally understand.

Since he decided that he did quite like kissing her after all, he began to lose the interest in gentle exploration, pushing his mouth against her face with more fervor, not really caring how much more of her face he ultimately covered. If he were human, she suspected the increase in enthusiasm would have included hands on her face, around her waist or a deeper kiss; but because he was not, his version of these additions was simply to use his mouth more posessively, opening it just a little to close it with more specific intent, his antennae consciously pushing her hair away from her face, or the fabric of her shirt to the side to give him better access. Most significantly, not caring about the fact that he was sort of pushing her backwards with his fervor. She didn’t mind, giggling contentedly, but tried to curve her body around his face to hold tighter and keep herself from losing her footing, taking the opportunity to press kisses to the rest of his face while his attention adventured to her arms, her ribs, her collar, and just before she really was going to fall, he brought his claw to slide up on the sand behind her, catching her, and also forcing her to fall back onto it all the way.

She wasn’t sure if this had been his intention in getting her like this, or he was just letting his mouth do what it wanted, but without even pausing to analyze her position or open his eyes, he used it to kiss more of her body, down her legs, her knees, her shins, and when his attention to her hips and stomach was definitely a lot more enthusiastic, there was something very relieving about the idea that he actually had some kind of attraction to her human body, or at least appreciation for it, if he was impatient enough to try and get some friction going there before her clothes were even off.

Not that she had a lot of time to contemplate it because impatient was right, pretty quickly he was excitedly peeling off her clothes. Her shirt went first, and for a quick moment he took the opportunity to press his face affectionately into the bare skin of her stomach before letting his tongue swipe across it.

“Augh.” She groaned, trying to relay a kind of disgust for the trail of saliva coating her stomach, now attracting the morning breeze, but it came out shakily and as he yanked her trousers off too, making a real attempt to catch her underwear in the same motion, his eyes bright like a child unwrapping candy. She gulped, remembering his comment about his mouth being used for his meals of human flesh, and experienced very mixed feelings as he looked over her naked flesh hungrily. But it was arousal above all, and she didn’t protest as he brought his other claw forward to sort of hold her hips down while his tongue swept across the seam of her thighs, across her abdomen, just grazing the beginning of where the hair between her legs began before flattening and swiping up across her whole torso in a motion that left her with no illusions about how large his tongue really was.

She had to admit, this was exceedingly hot, and a much more specific type of foreplay than she would have expected from… anyone, man or monster. She was impressed, and flushed and a little dizzy, relaxing more and more into his teasing, she watched his antennae above her sway with his head motions, and absentmindedly she reached up with both hands to grab them. Immediately he jerked and his head flew up to stare at her, wide-eyed.

Worried she’d done something wrong, she immediately let them go to follow his raised head.

“Sorry!” She squeaked with a shrug, “I forgot.”

“Huh?” He blinked, and seemed to not quite register what she’d said. “Oh! You mean because… Yeah, don’t yank, that was not good. But you can, I mean…” He lifted his free claw to take his own antennae and pull it down towards her to grab, and she was surprised to find his face full of anticipation before she finally did. He placed the other one in her other hand and bent down to go back to paying attention to her waist, but before he committed to it, he watched her expectantly and she just stared back, not really sure what he wanted her to do. He seemed to notice this, but before he could tell her anything she sort of blurted out,

“You… want me to rub them, or something?” He blinked at her a few times before breaking eye contact for just a moment, taking a deep breath then returning to meet her eyes, his face more flushed than before. Apparently crabs could blush, and apparently there was something worth blushing about now. Antennae, huh? She would never have guessed.

“Just…” He started hoarsely, “...Play with ‘em, babe. You know? You’ve got those flexible little human hands…” His voice turned dry, and he swallowed. “Use them, huh?” She couldn’t help but be charmed by the idea that the dexterity of her hands turned him on, but she supposed it made sense, since he didn’t have anything resembling the same kind of appendage. She was similarly starting to become fascinated with his unique appendages. She supposed she could have guessed antennae would be sensitive, but the idea that they were as sensitive as he was acting like they were was very thrilling. She got her confirmation when she did as he asked and began firmly stroking them with her thumbs, and he had to release her skin from his mouth for just a moment to catch a strangled breath and let out a loud _moan_ , a sound that made her grateful he’d gotten her laying down because her legs became weak and useless for it. Even moreso when she continued, and so did he. She stroked a little harder, and the sound he made was that much more desperate. To her surprise he sort of shook his head to free his antennae from her grasp, then looked up at her with a pained expression. “Just… just slow down, baby. We have um, the rest of our lives ahead of us, right? Maybe just be a little gentle?” She giggled and nodded obligingly. He didn’t grab them and place them in her hands this time, just gestured to them and let them fall into her hands as he bent his head back down toward her body. Before she could get too tight a grip on them again, his tongue was forcing her legs apart. If this had been his way to improvise a little plan to go easy on his antennae by distracting her, it was working _splendidly_. The soft press of his tongue between her legs made her gasp, loud and stunned at the sensation; holding onto his antennae almost just as a way to orient herself.

She sort of surprised herself with how exposed she suddenly felt with her legs open like this. Not that she had ever been a particularly shy girl, but she was not a crab, and she could only imagine what he saw when he looked at her mammalian situation with plans to give it more attention. He didn’t make any note of it though, and seemed just as captivated by it as the rest of her body, if not more, and with his attention adding to the tension she let it add to the thrill of the moment and forget about it.

She ran his antennae through her ‘flexible’ human fingers, caressed and squeezed them as he continued on her, teasing and prodding only continuing as long as his patience for it lasted before he continued with a lot more gusto. The surface of his tongue so great that none of the sensations were familiar. One swipe coated her from the small of her back to her sternum, and she was enjoying herself immensely, to his delight, she realized, focusing on his face with hazy eyes to see his tongue out through a toothy grin. She wasn’t sure if she wasn’t surprised how familiar he seemed to be with human female anatomy, he was thousands of years old, but nonetheless she did not anticipate for him to curve his tongue and drag the harder side of the muscle over her clit, repeating the process in between gentle licking in the same place. Eventually he moved lower, and the tip of his tongue was too big to actually go inside of her, but in some way it succeeded in creating a shallow home for itself at her opening nonetheless.

It was incredible, and obviously, she would have to work to make up the difference. She focused on caressing his antennae again. Unlike last time, he didn’t seem instantly overwhelmed, even when she grew more forceful, and she supposed he was simply more ready now because he let her rub them with more vigor, encouraging it even, clumsily dragging them back and forth against her hands, maybe having trouble concentrating on doing both that and performing some very impressive crab cunnilingus. After a frantic moment of watching him try to catch pleasure from her hands without letting her hips go anywhere, he ducked his head farther down between, and covered the whole area with his mouth, beginning to lick her repetitively - so he could also rhythmically tilt his head forward and force his antennae to move backwards and forwards in her hands. It was a very good formation, the rhythm of his mouth on her and his own growing pleasure, the more he allowed her to tighten her grip the more he rewarded her with appreciative moans, the vibration of it totally overwhelming her. The way the antennae twitched in her hands, his claw quivering under her, was more satisfying than she could ever have expected. Of course, she was moaning and gasping quite a bit too, but as much as she hoped her voice was getting to him as much as his was for her, she knew she was pretty reckless with noise. Tamatoa’s vocalizations felt deliberate, a direct result of the flow of the sensations he experienced. It was almost performative, if not for how catching him off guard produced the same passionate result. Really, he could have stopped stimulating her right then and done nothing but just continue to whimper and moan against her administrations and she would probably be satisfied.

However, she was pretty happy with the way things were going. It wasn’t long at all before she found herself panting and gasping noisily, having to squirm just to get his attention. He looked up at her, just with his eyestalks, curving up to see her face but apparently unwilling to actually take his mouth off of her body.

“Goldie,” She started, her voice coming out a lot shakier than she’d anticipated, “Any more of that and you’ll send me to the moon. I’ll finish up right here. We haven’t even gotten to, well,” Her head swam as she tried to think of if they had even talked about the next step, but her head was full of the roar of the ocean. “Whatever humans and crabs do.” She flipped her hand, knowing how ridiculous she sounded, but not really caring.

He sort of giggled, and it didn’t do much to help keep her off the edge. Finally he moved back, just a little, his saliva (or maybe her bodily fluids?) pretty lewdly strung out of his mouth, especially for how innocent his pride seemed to be in the smile on his face.

“I’m pretty sure human women have this really amazing, magical power to orgasm more than once. Just believe in yourself, baby!” He grinned, “Or at least, believe in _me_.” and she barely had a chance to break out in laughter before he dove back down, doubling up on his efforts, enough that she had to release his antennae and spread her arms out on his claw, gripping the chitin with outstretched palms to steady herself against the continuous pressure, and with a wail the whole world came crashing down around her, in all the most beautiful shades of light and color.

To her surprise, he didn’t remove his mouth instantly, instead he moved back slowly, his lips still tightened around her flesh, like he was trying to suck as much whatever as he could out of her, or maybe just savor the withdrawal, either way it did nothing to help her come down from her high and she trembled noisily, biting her lip and whimpering, just a little, watching with admiring eyes as he took his sweet time removing himself, finally ending with a bit of a lewd ‘pop’, only for him to look at her with a proud smile, and lick his lips greedily.

Finally released from his affection for a time, she laughed and sighed happily at him before screwing up her face in another, much more exaggerated look of disgust.

“You animal.” She teased, but her voice was tired and low and it sounded more like a compliment than an insult. As a result, he just grinned at her, his big toothy grin.

“Don’t knock it ‘till you try it, babe.”

After a moment of letting herself relax as he stared down at her with self satisfaction, she hopped off of his claw and approached him closely again. Taking his face in her arms, she guided it down to her level and gave him what would probably be a very sweet, innocent kiss if his mouth wasn’t stained with a mixture of his saliva and her own arousal. After a moment she pulled back and, still holding his face in her hands, gave him the same look of disgust.

“Yuck.”

“More for me.” He shrugged. But in all his teasing, sher heard his voice quiver, followed by a very shaky chuckle, and the sound instantly snapped her into action. Still holding his face in her hands she looked over her own shoulder at the funny way he was standing, then turned back to him with a wicked grin that made his face fall.

She stepped back. “C’mon, let’s have it.” She insisted, and he looked down at her in surprise, not really sure what she wanted him to do. She looked him up and down for a moment, thinking.

“Any chance I can get you on your back?”

He chuckled nervously. “Um… next time, okay babe?”

“Can you at least heave down a little for me?”

He rolled his eyes, but smiled and agreed, and she guided him to the edge of the cove where his back legs having bent down was assisted by his claws and good front leg crawling up the side of the incline, just enough to tilt him up and provide Tally some better access.

“How’s that?” He asked, a little bit of annoyance in his voice, but she suspected it was sort of more of a way to cover up the breathless nervous sound she could hear underneath than an actual distaste for the position.

She was happy to have a little bit of better light, but as she stood below him where the sand met the grass, she wasn’t entirely sure what she was looking at. She was highly relieved not to find something she would have considered proportionate, at least for a mammal, but the two long, thin appendages that had made themselves known were connected to something under his abdomen, like she couldn’t see the base, or maybe she wasn’t supposed to.

She looked up to see him looking down at her and the desperation in his face instantly made her flush from head to toe.

“You’re not… Gonna keep me waiting, right?” He asked, trying to give a little laugh like it was a quip, but he had to catch his breath to do it, cutting into his own heavy breathing.

Guiltily she took the plunge, reaching out to touch him, simply placing her hands on either one of them, which seemed like a natural choice. She squeezed them gently, just to find out what they felt like, and she looked up at him to see him close his eyes in a moment of relief.

What he had certainly wasn’t anything like the genitals of a human man, but human or not, Tamatoa was undoubtedly male, and with that thought she gathered her courage to move forward, reminding herself that men, at least sexually, were pretty much all the same. She would count on that. She touched them gently with both her hands, and running her palms along them downward, noting that while they were not the kind of impossible thing she had feared, they were still not exactly unintimidating. Besides there being two, they were still pretty thick, and quite long. She tried not to worry too much about whether or not her own body could handle it. Them. One or the other? She tried to focus on just making him feel as good as he had made her feel, attempting to pump her hands on them, but unlike the genitals of a human man, they didn’t have the consistency of firm muscle, rather they were sort of spongy and flexible, slippery and alive, and didn’t allow themselves to just be yanked crudely. They seemed deceptively heavy too as they slipped and curled in her hands, making any attempt to really grip them a bit of a challenge. She really wasn’t sure what they were at all, but despite her failure to provide very good friction, Tamatoa seemed to be enjoying himself, at least a little. Huffing and whimpering, his eyes closed, maybe in concentration to actually get some pleasure from her administrations, and she really couldn’t blame him for tentatively thrusting against her hands.

She decided to kneel on the ground to get a shorter reach with more force behind it, and tried to use the leverage to find some better angle at which to sort of massage him, but no choice seemed to be the obvious one. When she noticed his legs quivering, she looked up to see Tamatoa’s shadowed face, vulnerable and anticipating but clearly trying to be patient, biting his lip much too hard and forcing back whimpers. Her heart dropped into the pit of her stomach, guilty both in her lack of ability to please him, and also guilty in how positively her body reacted to his agony. First and foremost, she wanted to make him feel amazing, but she couldn’t deny that his desperate face was an absolutely beautiful one.

“Sorry.” She whispered, “I’m trying.”

“I-I know you are, babe.” He replied, his legs quivering just a little more, and she wasn’t sure whether or not to be frightened that he might fall on her or something. “Just… Pull a little, you know, I don’t… or maybe just...rub ‘em? I, uh… Look, can I just…” He walked back a few feet and she froze as he positioned himself above her to be more stable, with all his legs on the ground, and oh, surely this was karma for taking pleasure in his desperation.

He reached underneath with one claw and hooked Tally by the waist, pulling her closer to his sex. Before she could touch it again, like she assumed he would want her to so he could teach her his way, instead he used the same claw to push her onto her back, pushing it between her legs and opened his pincers, and subsequently, her legs, in one swift movement.

It was a lot larder to see his face from this angle, and she had to crane her neck to see him. When she realized he really wasn’t looking at her as much as concentrating on positioning her and himself to line up parallel to each other, his face sort of blank and his eyes misty, her own eyes widened, and she went pale, looking from his face to what was going on right above her hips a little bit frantically.

“G-Goldie?” She asked nervously, “You do remember that you’re as big as a barge… and I’m not… right?”

He seemed unable to answer her, too focused on his task, or maybe because he didn’t want to answer her. “I’m not that big.” He mumbled with a little bit of annoyance, defending himself in the middle of his concentration, and she couldn’t help but be charmed - and agree. Okay, not as big as a barge. Fair. It really didn’t make her any less nervous though, and she was frozen before he finally managed a hoarse, “Just… Just relax, baby.” She tried to take his advice, but was definitely unconvinced he wasn’t going to stove her in. As much love as she had for this crab, trust was not really part of the package, and she basically just hoped for the best. If this went waterside-up, certainly he’d be the one she’d rely on to nurse her back to health, which might be kind of entertaining at the least.

She watched his abdomen sink lower and lower towards her, and looked up at him once more. Now he was looking at her, his head curved downwards to concentrate on her face and the only reason she could think for him to be doing so at this very moment was to watch her expression, but as much as her chest tightened realizing he was expecting to see some kind of significant reaction, she also realized with some amount of comfort that this meant if something went wrong she’d be able to communicate it pretty easily, and with this she adjusted her back to be able to maintain eye contact with him a little easier. He grinned down at her giddily, his breathing becoming ragged, and the moment she felt contact, she couldn’t help but break their eye contact, watching nervously as he finally lowered himself all the way, sliding just one of the organs between her legs to prod at her opening. As fearful as she had been a moment ago, the sensation of it had her trembling already. The anticipation of actually connecting with Tamatoa this way was maddening and arousing. To be able to look back and forth between the appendage trying to find a home in her and the passionate face of her sweet decapod above her trying to hold back a desperate voice and a powerful instinct had her just short of delirious.

Finally, after a bit of wriggling around, coating itself in her fluids and generating plenty of its own, the one appendage found its way inside her; dipping down to explore her entrance before pushing itself in with no more patience to spare. She gave a strangled gasp, finally no longer watching their connection but Tamatoa’s face instead, letting him see her stunned gaping, and his bearing witness to her reaction made him hold back a strangled noise of his own, and caused the organ now connected to her to react too.

It was indeed too big, too much, but its flexibility was its saving grace as, rather than having to force it, the appendage slipped deeper inside her, and her mind was quickly going blank. When it was finally in as far as she was sure it could go, the remaining length sort of coiled and pressed fruitlessly against her opening, she heard Tamatoa let out an overwhelming groan, ending in a quiet little sound before she realized he was trembling pretty brutally, and suddenly any intrusiveness of the organ became a very welcome presence, perfect fit or no.

She really hadn’t expected Tamatoa to get much out of this, at least, not in any traditional sense. So, seeing his eyes squeeze shut and his face twist and grimace in pleasure at just being inside her was more satisfying than she could possibly express. Maybe it was mental, just finally making this connection, or maybe the one side only partially in her was really enough. Either way, he didn’t seem to want for any more.

Slowly, torturously slowly, for both of them, he moved out, little by little, then with great self control, eased it back inside her. He repeated this just a few times, grimacing and whimpering with every threat to his will as she trembled beneath him, perhaps making sure the movement was smooth enough, but to Tally’s relief, eventually he seemed to decide he could move on and began genuinely thrusting into her. The free organ squeezed itself between her legs, the base of it curved upwards against her pelvis, repeatedly rubbing her clit with the motion while the rest of it frantically seemed to wrap around her thigh and squirm against her stomach, trying to get as much friction outside of her body as possible. It was too good, and she was more than happy to go the extra distance, putting her hands out, palms down, to create friction on the top side of the other appendage too as it twisted and rolled against her stomach. She was very proud that this addition seemed to completely strip Tamatoa of all his composure, now he was moving at a frantic pace, moaning and gasping with each thrust, his claws digging into the ground to steady himself, a little bit wild, she would expect no less. When she looked above herself again to see him watching her - her and their connection with pure, lustful adoration, his face dark and his mouth hanging open with complete abandon, the sight, sound and sensation mixed together all at once sent an unexpectedly, embarrassingly quick orgasm rushing through her, and she couldn’t help but let out a scream. Her own voice and the contractions of her orgasm both inside her and encouraging the muscles of her stomach to tighten and tremble pushed Tamatoa toward the edge too, her eager nerves allowed him little time to prepare before he was frantically chasing his own release, thrusting much too quickly to maintain a rhythm and if she didn’t know any better, she would guess the angle he was driving at was an attempt to keep her orgasm going, or give her another one, so that she would continue to contract around him. Whether it was ideal or not for him though, her orgasm did finish, and the sensitivity of her body was unbearable for only a moment before his own release hit him with force and he was trembling violently above her, howling and gasping for air as he rode out his orgasm, still thrusting, but holding himself deep inside, unwilling to take it out, the other appendage spilling its contents out all over her stomach and chest.

When he finally came down, he stayed on top of her for a moment, quivering with aftershocks threatening to make his exhausted body collapse on her - she was pretty sure it would be worth it, but she would definitely rather not find out.

“Tamatoa..?” She asked, mumbling into the flesh of his abdomen, and after a moment of no response she tapped him there to get his attention, just in case he’d forgotten she was down here. “Goldie?”

“I just,” He choked, “Give me like.. One more second inside you.” He begged, and the request was such a flattering, overwhelming one, she obliged. After a moment, he finally began to crawl backward, pulling himself out of her and letting her actually see the consistency of the substance she’d just recieved. Unlike a human male, this was stringy, large globby bits spread all through it, even as the substance spilled out of her it seemed to maintain its shape.

“Eugh.” She stuck her tongue out at it, but Tamatoa seemed too tired to care about her opinion, concentrating exclusively on moving back all the way until he could rest his head directly on top of her body, lying on the ground. His chin on her chest, apparently not really caring about his own mess, he gazed down at her with droopy eyestalks. For a moment he sighed, eyes closed, a smile on his face.

“I just love you.” He told her dreamily, without any particular importance. She was stunned, but he didn’t seem to even notice he’d said it let alone said it as if it was any kind of big admission. He just sighed, lifted his head for just a moment to sort of wipe the majority of the mess off her body with one arm, then let his eyes close again as he sort of pushed his face down, rubbing it against her stomach affectionately. Contentedly, she put her hand on his forehead between his eyestalks and gently stroked him there.

After a moment of silence, and Tamatoa not even lifting his head, she lifted her neck up. She pulled her caressing hand back and formed a fist to gently knock on the same area of his face.

“You’re not asleep, are you?”

“Why not?” He mumbled, not even opening his eyes. “You woke me up, after all. The least you can do is be my pillow for a while.”

“Uh-huh, can I at least go wash off and put my clothes back on first?”

 _“Why?”_ He whined, “You look _ridiculously_ attractive like this.”

She narrowed her eyes, sitting up on her elbows now. “Naked? Or generously coated in your crab spunk?”

Finally he gave her eye contact and a smug smile. “Both.”

“You sure know how to compliment a lady.” She blew a strand of hair out of her face sarcastically as her sweat began to dry. “I’m glad _you’re_ a fan of the look, but I’m _not_ a fan of the idea of my crewmates realizing I’m gone, coming to check here, and finding me all rogered by you, swimmin’ the filth to prove it.”

He scrunched his face at her. “You are so gross.”

“Gross!” She scoffed, “You just-!” She stopped herself and sighed, “I’d just rather not boast about it, if you don’t mind.”

“Why not? You just got _‘rogered’_ by the Great Lalotai Collector, Tamatoa. Your crew loves me, babe! I bet they’d be proud of you for taking it like a champ.” He winked.

“Let me ask you something… how did you know I could?” She asked timidly.

He blinked at her for a moment. “...Take it?” She continued, and his expression was still pretty blank. Her face fell.

“...You didn’t.” She huffed, and he smiled sheepishly.

“Heh… You know me too well, _ma souris_.”

“Yeah,” She sighed, sort of looking over her own body, “I think that’s accurate at this point.”

“Congratulations.” He smiled.

She paused for a moment, clearly thinking, and he perked up to hear what she was going to say.

“You know…” She told him, a smile creeping across her face, “This means Maui was right.”

She giggled, watching Tamatoa’s face lose all its contentedness as it turned sour, and he looked at her with extreme distaste.

“You sure know how to ruin a mood, babe.”

“Does that mean you’re gonna let me up now? Or should I talk some more about Maui’s successes, hmm?”

“Oh, fine.” He grumbled, but did as he was asked, and watched with amusement as she nakedly ran across the beach and into the sea.

He sort of just gazed at her out there for a moment, a contented sigh escaping him before finding the strength to stand, himself, and decided it was probably a good idea to follow her lead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Crab junk is genuinely actually really super small, Tally got hella lucky. But if other giant monsters are a little more proportionate, I wonder if that means giant monster crabs are likely to avoid giant monster locker rooms..? Other monsters can laugh, but I have to assume the more 'gifted' monsters have a lot fewer sexual options.  
> Anyway, you could look it up if you wanted, but also Tamatoa is a magical crab mashup with a face, so whatever you're picturing is probably just as good as any real crab anatomy.  
> Real male coconut crabs don't have anything that extends for reproduction - but also Tamatoa's underside doesn't resemble a coconut crab at all, he has an "apron" like the kind of crabs who _do_ actually have genitals that extend. I don't think Disney was giving us a special hint or something, but it is pretty convenient!


	12. Shift Colors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **WARNING!!!!** they do it again ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ  
>  Tamatoa is pretty sure he's gonna get Tally a thesaurus for her birthday.  
> anyway this may not be the last time before anything else interesting happens since this is pretty much the reason i started writing this in the first place. smut never goes out of style tbh

The day was… difficult. Not because anything went wrong, in fact, things seemed to be going very well. The pirates tried to debrief Tamatoa about their enemy, theorize about what their attack would probably look like, how they could best use him. There was a lot of debate on whether or not one look at him would be enough for the Reddies to turn tail and run, or frighten them enough to at least destroy any advantages they might have. How many weapons to fix, build, load. A plan A and a plan B for how they would signal each other of the attack, and the amount of initiative the pirates took in making the plans made Tally really proud of them. Tamatoa suggested that the pirates enthusiasm was probably a result of the fact that he was here now - one hell of a morale booster to have a sea monster on your side. He made it adamantly clear he would not actually brave the ocean though, which presented a few complications, but only a handful of the more imaginative pirates actually imagined Tamatoa just waltzing up to the incoming ship and sinking it by taking a bite out of its hull.

As fun as it was for Tally to basically have an excuse to include Tamatoa in everything she did throughout the day, imagining ways in which he could fight and describing them dreamily, Tamatoa himself seemed almost completely uninterested in their plans.

Yes, he stood near them as they detailed their strategies, followed them as they scouted out locations to include in their tactics, but Tally was pretty sure his interest only reached the bare minimum. Really, Tally hadn’t expected any more from him, he was Tamatoa after all.

But the fact that she had already expected him to be uninterested was making her feel pretty stupid for consciously giving him something else entirely to distract him.

She didn’t regret it (though she was a little sore), definitely not. Surely if she had not gone down to the cove this morning it would be she who was fiercely distracted by thoughts of sex with him. And hell, she didn’t know he hadn’t been feeling the same way. Maybe the day would have been unproductive for both of them if they hadn’t gotten their much needed alone time.

But maybes were maybes, and what was a fact was that their early morning success had them both much too aware of each other as the day went on.

More than anything, Tally was worried. Tally was worried about the incoming pirates. Worried about her father, who, as far as she knew, still hadn’t come out of his cabin on the ship. Worried about the islanders, who had done so much for them, if they were safe enough, if there was an offshoot in each of their plans to keep them that way, talking to Moana and Maui about how to handle it if against all measures the villagers did get involved, profusely apologizing on behalf of her father for his behavior the day before. Worried about Tamatoa! What if he got hurt? Going over her mental catalogue of preventative magic, rifling through her books for more, supervising the pirates use of resources; and as much as she had to admit that actually getting to see Tamatoa’s face overcome with pleasure only made it harder to resist thinking about; making plans was still her top priority.

Tamatoa, on the other hand, seemed to be having an absolutely lovely day. If he had any worry to spare for the inevitable conflict, he was doing a very good job of not showing it. He smiled at the sun and hummed with the sound of the waves, breathing in the fresh air, and Tally’s heartstrings were hopelessly played as she imagined how it must feel to be in the human world after being in an underground realm for so long. But the other part of what seemed to make him so content all day was how he hung around Tally.

It wasn’t just that he teased her for the sake of teasing her, though he absolutely did. A claw gently squeezing her thigh before she turned around and he acted like he had no idea what she was looking at him for. An antennae dipping down the back of her shirt all the way to the the hem of her trousers before she could catch it. But beyond that sort of thing, distracted was probably the best word to describe his behavior. When she spoke up during conversations he watched her admiringly, with lidded eyes. When she sank back into the group he would find some way to remind her he was there, as if she could forget a giant monster crab providing a ridiculous amount of shade for their preparations. He’d slip innuendos into conversation when he was paying close enough attention to think of one; take any excuse to touch her.

As frustrating as Tamatoa’s little antics were, she couldn’t really blame him. The idea of simply taking his claw and leading him into the forest away from everything and doing what they had done all over again was a painfully good one.

Really, under different circumstances, Tally might have liked this. She’d never really gotten a chance to be an innocent girl, experience young love, look at someone else and feel butterflies in her stomach, flush just from the thought of touching them. The fact that Tamatoa was an ancient monster crab and that what they had done together was probably one of the most degenerate things a woman and a crab could do really didn’t change that feeling, at least for Tally. They were sweet on each other, couldn’t keep their hands (er, claws) off one another, their feelings had them doing things they had never before, it didn’t get much more innocent than that.

But it wasn’t exactly the same. She and Tamatoa were not young lovers with all the time in the world and hormones that were king. As much as she would love to have all the time and resources to spend on Tamatoa, she had a crew to worry about, a very difficult father to care for, a real battle to prepare to fight. And it wasn’t as if they could just slip away for a moment either, the idea of Tamatoa ‘slipping away’ was pretty absurd on its face, as much as maybe she wanted it, in all its absurdity. Maybe the most absurd of everything though was how long the day seemed to be. Tally had spent months at sea. Sometimes one day felt like months, just staring at the sky and trying not to hate the available rations; and she couldn’t remember any of those days feeling as long as this one did.

Eventually, nature showed mercy, and the sun did go down, and Tally was racing Tamatoa back to his cove. She was pretty sure that made it pretty obvious what was next on their agenda, at least to Maui who she noticed did give them a glance. She would have been very surprised if the pirates themselves had any suspicions, but she also couldn’t decide if it was something she wanted to keep from them or not. She could only imagine the amount of jokes they would be able to come with about sex, crabs, monsters and gold over the next few voyages, just staring at that sky.

Not that it was worth worrying about, especially when she’d been waiting all day to stop worrying.

Tally should probably have expected that Tamatoa would not exactly have the same fantasy she did. As soon as they made it through the opening to the cove, she expected, without really thinking about it, for him to lower himself - his head in particular - for her to smooch passionately. However, Tamatoa had a pretty different idea, and with how little he consulted her she had to assume he had also really not thought about the idea that she might not want exactly what he did, as she found herself turned away from him, hands on a boulder on the edge of the wall of the cove with a giant crab starting to cover her body with his from behind.

“Wh-hey!”

She spun around, and Tamatoa just stopped, stunned, apparently incapable of understanding why she would do anything but bend over for him, just looking down at her with a look of shock and confusion like she’d just snapped him out of a dream.

“You said I could get _you_ on your back next time.”

“Did I?” He blinked, not making any attempt to move, clearly still pretty sure he was going to convince her to turn around again and continue like they hadn’t stopped. “I don’t remember that.”

“Well _I_ do.” She insisted before ducking out from underneath him, which earned her a “Hey!” herself.

She stood back, arms on her hips and Tamatoa watched silently as she walked backwards toward the ocean, only to stop near the surf and tilt her head with a little knowing smile.

“What?” He asked flatly.

“Nothing.” She sighed from the distance, “Just that you are… _incredibly_ beautiful.” She sort of nodded to him as a silent indicator that his bioluminescence was beginning to show in the dark of the evening, and he just stared at her, wide-eyed. “You can’t blame me for wanting to see you, right?”

After a moment of pouting Tamatoa conceded with a huff. “No… I can’t, babe.” And he began to walk over to her a little. “Alright, fine.” His eyestalks balanced unevenly in skepticism, “But if anything attacks us, I’m counting on you and all your swashbuckling to take care of it, got it?”

She nodded, grinning and biting her lip.

With a little help from the buoyancy of the sea, it really wasn’t too hard to get him to turn over. He seemed surprised at how quick she had been to figure it out though, and she couldn’t help but remind him that she’d lived on boats her whole life. He wasn’t sure he appreciated his masterpiece of a shell being compared to the industrial hull of a ship, but he seemed pretty content with the results - at least to the extent that he was comfortable being on his back, which seemed like not much at all. He wasn’t completely disadvantaged though, his shell was propped up a little against the wall of the cove, gentle waves disrupted by the golden mass on their way to the shore. For a moment, he seemed worried that his treasures might get swept out to sea, but it only took a few minutes of him watching the empty tide to put it to rest. For how impatient they’d both been, Tally found she really didn’t mind waiting for him to get comfortable, especially because the more the sun went down the more his colorful glow became pronounced, the blue from his shell casting light all over the rocks behind him, creating a backlight to his silhouette that Tally found pretty lovely. She was sort of surprised to find, as she finally found her footing and climbed atop her prone crustacean love, that his abdomen didn’t have any discernible markings of its own.

Despite all the precautions and time he made sure to take before letting Tally mount him, he was still clearly unconvinced that this was a good idea.

“See?” He scolded, “If you hadn’t insisted on this, we could be going for round two by now. But it’s gonna be a minute before I can do a thing from this position.”

He was referring to his lack of visible arousal, she supposed. He was on his back, but it seemed to be no trouble for him to keep his head up or curl and twist if he wanted, which made Tally think maybe he was being more of a drama queen than anything else, but she couldn’t say that with confidence since she was still a pretty novice expert on coconut crabs. Either way, she shrugged casually.

“Just more of a challenge.” She grinned, and she would have been satisfied if her attitude at least lead him to believe she felt in control, but even better he seemed to smile to himself and look away in defeated amusement, like he was finally agreeing maybe they didn’t need to totally play by the rules. As he relaxed a little, he turned back to her with a playful look of incredulity.

“Alright, Miss Danger.” He began, and with how theatric he was being, Tally was feeling much better about his comfort level, “What’s your daring plan, then?”

She looked him up and down from where she sat on his abdomen, chewing on her lip for a moment before making a decision. Standing and steadying herself before climbing all the way up to his face, he had to strain to look at her so close to him, his eyestalks turning in on themselves.

“Uh..?” He chuckled, and without another wasted moment she crouched on his neck, and pressed her mouth to his. He let her choose when to pull back, but when she did he laughed at her again.

“Really? This again?”

“Mmhmm.” She confirmed, and finally sat all the way down on his neck, her legs falling on either side, her feet planted on the underside of his shell there, and she leaned back in a sort of silent brag at the ingenuity of her decision, as if he would say something, but he just rolled his eyes at her.

“Oh fine, just kiss me then, crazy pirate.”

With a much more sincere grin she obliged, happily leaning in once more, softly pressing her mouth haphazardly against his. Despite his lack of enthusiasm, he definitely was more concentrated on the act than he had been earlier.

There was something doubly surreal about the silence of the situation, the only sound being the frankly unappealing smacking and squeaking accompanied with kissing, and the gentle white noise of the ocean. Things got a lot better though as night quickly crept over the island and the sounds of the night created a chorus around them. In the dark, Tamatoa’s face seemed like a much more natural target for her mouth, and to Tally’s happiness Tamatoa didn’t seem to get bored of it either. Pretty soon they were both moaning and whimpering against each others faces, their differences aside. Settling into the night, intoxicated by each other both gained enthusiasm little by little; Tally kissing his face with more urgency, her hands spread out, running over his skin as if she was trying to touch everywhere her mouth couldn’t get to. Tamatoa reaching up to press her closer to his face, silently requesting she lose any inhibitions, and seemed to start coming up with things he wanted, re-adjusting her a few times without warning or explanation to place her where she could reach the sides of his neck without falling sideways, the base of his antennae without too much awkward reaching. She even landed a smooch on his eyelid while he had her up there, causing it to flinch away far off to the side, which he didn’t find quite as endearing as she did, but when she found her way back to his mouth the heat of his face and unsteadiness of breath had her pretty proud.

“Alright, alright.” He sighed, “Maybe kissing isn’t the worst. But if anyone asks, I do it just to humor you, alright?”

She nodded with a little giggle, then tentatively looked over her shoulder down at his abdomen, then back to him with a proud smile.

“Told you I could take on a challenge.” She winked, and he just smiled at her with amusement.

“Uh-huh, congratulations, but the challenge is just beginning, babe.”

And with a determined grin she shuffled back down to make a second attempt at actually getting somewhere with her hands. Activated as his equipment seemed to be, she was sort of fascinated with how she still sort of had to guide them out from his body. Once they were out though she ignored them for a moment, and curled forward to look and see if she could see where they came from, exactly. In the dark it really didn’t look like anything much. Flexible as the plates of his abdomen were, she didn’t dare try to actually explore between them. The only thing she could really report that was interesting from sight alone was the fact that it seemed like the appendages didn’t actually start from where they appeared, but ran underneath the plates, farther down, which was sort of a surprise. She wondered if there was any merit in the idea that maybe his abdomen below the opening was worth giving attention to. Soon she turned back to look at the actual bits she had to work with, and examined them for a moment before briefly looking up at Tamatoa’s face to see him looking at her, apparently watching her examine him, with a little bit of distaste, skeptical and impatient.

“Just curious.” She raised her hands, defending herself.

“Well can you be curious and also, maybe, I don’t know, like, productive? At the same time?” He pouted, and she tried not to let on how she suspected the sarcasm was more than anything an attempt to mask his eagerness. Either way, curious about the rest or no, she was twice as interested in the available length, and was more than content to turn her attention to it.

She took each of them in her two hands, which Tamatoa sort of laughed at, which made her feel pretty self-conscious. She dropped them, then straightened up to fold her arms and look at him annoyedly.

“Well!” She raised her arms, “What should I do?”

“Like I said before just… rub, pull, something along those lines. You can’t just jerk them like you’re milking a cow. They’re not penises. It’s an art!”

She sighed and tried to do as she was asked, leaning forward she took them in her hands again, but turned them so her palms were facing upward, and she began to stroke them in uneven time, and when she finally heard Tamatoa let out a grateful sigh she looked up at his face again. His eyes closed and his head relaxed against the rock, apparently approving of this choice.

She continued silently for a moment, but couldn’t help asking.

“What are they then?” She questioned, glancing up at his face again and trying to be coy, as if she wasn’t dying to know. He cracked an eye.

“What?”

“You said they’re not penises… What are they?”

He let his eye close and relaxed again with a sigh that was somewhere between annoyed and content, like he was trying not to let her interrupt his focus, but apparently he was too pleased with the situation to think of a reason to deny her an answer.

“Gonopods.” He said simply

“And… how’s that different from a penis?” She asked, experimenting with twisting her hands as she ran them along the, now named, gonopods.

“It just is!” Tamatoa insisted with a gasp, and fascinated as she was, she suddenly felt a little bit bad for trying to get a biology lesson out of him while also trying to please him. She went back to her task with an attempt at concentration, and the stroking did turn to ‘pulling’ as he called it. She didn’t really understand what made these organs any different from a male mammal’s reproductive organs, but she couldn’t deny that, other than being something he obviously used for penetration (or else this morning had been twice as unorthodox as she thought), they were pretty unlike them in every other way. They were slimy, and didn’t seem to have any specific sections, when she made it to the tip of each, which was quite a long way, it didn’t seem as if that was any more sensitive than the rest of it, nor did it seem like they were demanding any kind of rhythmic friction. She knew they must, at least to achieve climax, since that’s what had happened earlier, but as she touched them with her hands he didn’t seem impatient waiting for her to get any kind of steady pumping motion going. The more she let her hands wander the more she noticed he seemed just as happy when she did interesting things as when she did forceful things. Spreading her fingers and trapping a side of one organ with her knuckles to knead it like one might for a back massage had him shivering and smiling down at her. Squeezing them palm-width by palm-width all the way up them both succeeded in pulling from him an enthusiastic series of breathy moans, sounds that had Tally flushed all the way down her body, wondering why she was still clothed.

The two appendages also had their own bioluminescence, which Tally was pretty amused by. Blue-green, like his claws and the tips of his legs, and she had to stifle a giggle thinking of two giant crabs having a very easy time of screwing in the dark.

She still couldn’t get over how they were quite thin for what she would have expected of a creature Tamatoa’s size, and how grateful she was for it. It seemed a little too good to be true, if she was honest. Not that they were exactly made for her, and she really had no idea why nature would give any creature two sex organs. Who needs to get that much baby-making done that fast? She wondered what exactly a female of his species would have that would fit both of them and their distinctly non-mammalian shape.

But she could handle at least part of one, which was more than she had actually expected, and the fact that she knew it now really instilled a lot of confidence in her future prospects of sexual exploits with the crab beneath her.

Pretty soon the way the way the organs were reacting to her touch, and how her touch was affecting Tamatoa had her dizzy. One incredible benefit of having something so oversized in front of her was never missing a change in conditions. When she admired the tissue closely or put her lips on it not only would she hear Tamatoa’s breath tremble, but she could feel the organs in her grasp writhe and shudder. It was quite a motivator, and at this point she had no reservations about throwing all her clothes off and straddling both organs best she could only to press them to her body and run her tongue across its length on either side too trying to be thorough, but too impatient to focus on actually covering much surface area. She really couldn’t tell if he even liked it though, because she was also spreading her legs and pressing her groin to the organs beneath her, and it was easy to guess that was what he was really focused on, because it was what she was focused on too. It didn’t take long for her to actually choose a side, the length of one of the gonopods tucked in between her legs, neatly lined up to fit in all her divots there in a pretty lewd display that had both of them quickly losing patience. Neither of them were looking at each others faces, both concentrating on their own maneuver, Tally rocking her hips, greedily making use of as much of the organ as she could, the other one trapped between her thigh and its twin receiving its own type of friction. Tamatoa having a bit of a hard time keeping still, squirming and whimpering as he watched her experiment with him, laying more of her body down onto it, threading both appendages together through her legs and up against her stomach, between her breasts and to rub the ends gently through her hands, and he was sort of helpless. An attempt to rock his own abdomen forward really didn’t do anything but make Tally unbalanced, and unattentive to his needs, and after this seemed to sink in and he wanted more anyway, he got her attention.

“Tally…” She looked up at him with an adoring smile, laced with self-satisfaction at the position she had him in. He wasn’t even annoyed though, just impatient. “C’mon, enough. Just… Just _sit on it_ , would you?”

Even naked and straddling genitals, she blushed from ear to ear. But she threw him a look of genuine confusion.

“Isn’t this actually better?” She asked, rocking her hips just a little to remind him what position she was in, holding the rest of the organ against her body, “I can cover way more ground this way, right?”

Her gentle rocking made him brace himself for a moment with a grunt before focusing at her again.

“I suppose so.” He added breathlessly, “Maybe.” He swallowed, apparently not being able to fully concentrate on his answer, “But I’d… I’d really rather you just…” She felt the organs writhe with his imagination, “Let me stick it in, okay? I don’t care about covering ground, I’d just really appreciate it a whole lot if you let me fuck you, babe.”

With a wide grin and a rush of heat through her body, she nodded at him eagerly. Happy to oblige his request, she freed his appendages, crawling forward over the length of them, sitting on him again with a little scoot before pulling herself up on her knees again and watching behind herself as she eased backwards toward his sex, lonely and impatient. To her surprise, both sides seemed to have the same plan, both prodding at her entrance against each other, making her shiver and whine. However, reminded of how it had been a bit of a miracle for her to even accept one earlier, she reached back prevent one of them from moving forward any more as she sank back on the other one. She could hear Tamatoa gasping, but was a little too concentrated on her task to watch his reaction. As soon as she had the first in far enough she was convinced it wouldn’t just slip out, she guided the other one to fold underneath between her legs and out in front of her to do a variant of what she had done before, determindley adjusting herself so he had a pretty simple angle, and she could press her clit to the second one.

Once she was pretty confident in her positioning, she finally looked up at Tamatoa’s face. He was just watching her with fascination, and as soon as she caught his eyes she could feel both organs swell and hear his breath hitch. With a knowing smile to accompany Tamatoa’s blank expression she began to roll her hips, just a little, but as soon as she started moving he let out a breath as if he’d just been underwater, breathing and gasping.

“That’s it.” He managed gratefully between breaths; and let her find her pace. He watched her experiment with angles of penetration, consciously biting his lip, maybe to resist the pleasurable sensations, or maybe to hold himself back from thrusting into her yet, she wasn’t sure; but she was thankful for his restraint either way.

Pretty soon, she found a rhythm, rocking back and forth to let the inserted appendage slip in and out of her, and it was terribly slow, but she didn’t mind as much as Tamatoa did, because to her surprise she found both of his claws come down on either side of her. When they moved to grab her she flinched for a moment, and he paused, just looking at her, and when she didn’t really see anything she didn’t like in his expression, she nodded at him slowly, eyes still wide, but giving him permission to do whatever it was he was going to do.

Noting her reaction, he let his claws close in on her gently, and guided her (well, lifted her) upwards on his abdomen, and repositioned her in pretty much the same way. One of his claws dropped to his side, but the other remained beside her, and she looked at him with confusion.

He looked like he was going to say something, but instead he just swallowed and nodded to his claw for her to take it, which, tentatively, she did.

“Brace yourself.” He told her softly before finally allowing himself to bring his own abdomen up off the ground, pretty slowly, making sure he wouldn’t miss his target, and he slid the appendage back inside her, at quite a more direct angle now that he was the one driving it, and she moaned. She would really have to reward him for his caution later. Right now, she was just trembling, waiting for him to do as he pleased, much too overwhelmed to even care that the other appendage was going unloved.

He let his abdomen fall again, but not enough for the gonopod to actually remove itself from her body, so when he did it again it went in without any struggle. They both groaned in time as it made it back to its initial depth, and for a moment they just looked at each other with stupid smiles, much too amused at their jinx for two people in the middle of having sex. It didn’t take too long for them to both forget all about it though, Tamatoa’s pace much more eager, thrusting up into her with serious concentration at first, becoming more and more automatic the more he kept it up, Tally moaning helplessly with the rhythm, gripping with both hands the claw that in itself was beginning to become a little unsteady with his own loss of composure.

Soon between rocking his abdomen and holding her steady everything else about him was coming apart, and Tally opened her eyes to watch him with adoration as his eyes fluttered shut and moans continued to roll out of his throat with abandon.

“God you’re beautiful.” She told him dreamily against her own increasing pleasure, and in the middle of his blissful expression, he sort of cracked a quick smile.

“Tell me more.” He said, as if she had been trying to be funny. She wasn’t.

“In the daylight you…” She grunted, “G-Glitter like a chandelier but now you’re…” She moaned, “Oh, now you are so captivating like…” She gasped, “A candle in the window of somewhere safe and warm.”

He was silent for a moment before they met each others eyes again, and looking at her with sort of disbelief that she did not expect to see, nonetheless he managed to reply.

“Is that all?” He asked, and as cheeky as she was sure he wanted it to sound, coming out of his mouth in passion made it sound like the most genuine question ever asked.

She giggled, but dropped it just as fast against a particularly hard thrust that caused her to gasp and whine, squeezing her eyes shut to concentrate on the sensation and her ‘poetry’ best she could, “You’re like… The bright, warm sun in the daytime,” To her amusement and delight, as soon as she finished the phrase she heard him let out a soft moan, “...And the… the bewitching moon at night.” Then a very noisy gasp.

She looked up to see his face again which was completely lost in the mixture of physical pleasure and infatuation with the words she was saying, his mouth hanging open and his eyes glistening with adoration like he was completely trapped by her speech, which Tally didn’t mind at all.

As soon as he registered her gaze, he swallowed hard.

“..Yes?” He asked in a soft whine. She smiled, pride flushing through her body, as if she didn’t already feel on top of the world.

“You’re like… dancing firelight…” She insisted, “Hot embers glowing, flaking off into the sky.”

His focus on her was almost totally locked, except for when he would squeeze his eyes shut to resist the sensation of a particularly good movement, and as he did that now, after a short moment of letting his voice out, a long moan before gasping for air which which to continue speaking.

“C-C’mon, babe…” He pleaded, “You…” He choked, “You can do better than that.” And his eyes settled on her again, his eyelids tightening, looking to her with all the emotion he could muster, as if one wrong move could shatter him, trembling, waiting for her next comparison with all the belief in the world that she had one.

“You’re… lovelier, more enchanting than stained glass,” She assured him, and earned herself a loud, reckless string of whimpers, “Prettier than a street lined with festival lanterns,” unashamed moaning and panting as he trembled, his appendages squirming, “More dazzling than the stars in the sky.”

That was enough for Tamatoa. With an agonizing wail he seemed to lose all other senses and was unable to steady her with his claw as he climaxed, just thrusting up into her frantically without any kind of restraint, moaning and yelping, overwhelmed enough by the impact of  her words and the feeling of her body that he didn’t seem to care if his expression and vocalizations were unbecoming, just shuddering and trying to find a new string of pleasure with each vowel of the praises that rang in his head.

His release inside her brought her over the edge just behind him, and she closed her own eyes, trying to savor every sensation, guiltlessly grinding her own hips backwards to take advantage of every bit of the enthusiasm she’d earned from him, and though her voice didn’t quite rival Tamatoa’s, nonetheless she was sure if any of the beach-dwellers were just a little too close to the cove, they would have no illusions about what she was feeling.

She felt him pull out completely, breathing heavily under her before she opened her own eyes to see him relaxed completely, letting his head fall backwards against the wall of the cove, quite a big, gooey mess between the two of them. She expected him to say something, but for a while he just lay there trying to catch his breath, and with self-satisfaction (and regular satisfaction) she climbed forward over the mess to lie on her stomach and watch his tilted back head with admiration, and pride at her improvising.

It wasn’t all that long after she crawled forward that he finally did lift his head to look down at her with heavy, lidded eyes.

“You don’t know what you do to me, _ma souris_.” He insisted, still breathing pretty heavy, but slowly now,  his voice low and soft.

“I think I actually know exactly what I do to you.” She offered, gesturing behind her with her thumb at his release. He didn’t seem to want to respond to that, or care, just let himself continue to relax. She thought for a moment, though.

“You know, I can’t do that again.”

“Huh?” He asked, still pretty hazy, but there was definitely a real undercurrent of panic in his voice.

“I mean, unless you make it a point to forget everything I just said.” She explained, “How many more compliments can I give you before I just plain run out of metaphors?”

Finally, in all his exhaustion, he chuckled, then sat up just a little to look at her with amusement, but also adoration, a smile stuck on his face.

“Don’t sell yourself short, babe.” He sighed happily, “I’m sure there’s _plenty_ more where that came from.”


	13. All Night In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **WARNING!!!** they continue to fuck. from Tamatoa's perspective this time though.  
>  look they waited all day to do it, let them live  
> honestly this will probably be the last smut filled chapter, unless i get really inspired for another one or something. still never got to any really good antennae stuff, hmm... maybe in a standalone fic or something hahaha

After spending a little time in the ocean to clean up, sort of running back and forth between barbarically wiping Tamatoa off himself with her arms and diving back in to shake off as much refuse as she could, eventually she came out of the ocean with a sigh, picking up her own clothes to dry herself off with.

She was pretty like that. Wet hair, wet eyelashes, the illusion of cleanliness was there anyway, even if the water of the ocean wasn’t ideal, it had been sort of interesting to watch her do her best, swim around, it was interesting - the pirates seemed so simple and uncivilized compared to the islanders. Traveling was their state of being, and they seemed to be not so great at it anyway. But there were little things he noticed, especially watching Tally now that he was above ground to see them. Little ways they made their barbarism work for them - drying herself off with her clothes for example. It seemed counterintuitive, but she did it as if it was the most normal thing in the world. She was a good swimmer, for some reason he thought she wouldn’t be. Even recalling back to when he had wounded her, how quickly and cleanly she had treated the gash. It was odd to see her do those things with grace, and then talk with her mouth full too.

To his surprise she walked up to him still nude, grinning, and stood there, hands on her hips, rocking her heels. “What was that about a round two?” She asked cheekily.

Tamatoa groaned. “Babe… that wasn’t enough of a workout for you? Why’d you even clean up if you wanted to go again?”

She folded her arms. “Staying clean is how you stay alive, big guy.” She lectured, _could have fooled Tamatoa…_ “As a pirate it would be kinda embarrassing for me to die of a muff infection. If I gotta die from sick, it should at least be scurvy or something.”

He frowned. “What exactly do you think is _in_ my spermatophores?”

“That’s what that stuff is huh?” She mused, “Uh, but no, I didn’t mean because of your… contribution. Just sometimes when one thing goes into another thing it makes it a little too easy for less welcome stuff to get in too. Besides, don’t you feel better? It’s a lot less distracting if you ask me.”

He sort of shrugged under his shell, “All I feel is _exhausted_. If you didn’t wanna tire me out you shouldn’t have made me do stunts on my back!” He paused, “Not to mention… Your poetry.”

She raised her eyebrows. “What about it? Words tire you out, Goldie?”

In the dark of night, surely any red creeping under his skin was invisible, but he hoped his voice didn’t give away his nervousness anyway. He should have thought about how embarrassing it actually was to admit that a few nice words was all it had taken to turn his climax up to eleven before he had added it. He was Tamatoa, he knew he was beautiful, he didn’t need anyone to tell him, but… By Te Fiti, it was sure something when she did. Oh well. Facts were facts.

“Yours do.” He managed, pretty confidently, if he did say so himself.

To his surprise, and maybe fear, she looked up at him with dark, lidded eyes. He gulped.

“Can you really blame me?” She asked, playfully, but he was pretty sure he could hear that dark tone in there somewhere. He was a little speechless. “Just looking at you is…” She sighed, “Overwhelming.”

His breathing was shaky. She wouldn’t dare.

“When you let me look at you… And you’re also making me feel _so good_ …” She continued, leaning against his leg and letting her fingers draw shapes on the chitin. His breath hitched, and he tried very hard not to react to her touching him. It was just his leg! He didn’t even feel it! Exoskeleton, baby! But damn, she looked nice down there… “If you don’t want me to sing your praises, you just can’t _be_ that beautiful.”

He tried to chuckle, but it was very unconvincing.

“I mean… watching you in pleasure… your adorable face… the magic I see on every part of you… while you’re inside me?” He bit the inside of his lip, hard, and she just smiled up at him, that wicked grin, “I just can’t help myself. You drive me wild, Goldie.”

“Oh _fucking_ … Fine. Fine.” He whined, not even trying to pretend he wasn’t trembling at this point, and her eyes widened with glee. Wicked smile gone, replaced with excitement. “Let me do it my way this time, yeah?” He huffed, and she nodded eagerly. He didn’t do a very good job of pretending her excitement wasn’t bringing the effect of her words up significantly either.

“Just turn around, will you? Stubborn girl.”

Without much hesitation she made her way to the edge of the beach where the hard ground started, elbows on the grass, knees on the sand, insisting this was a lot more comfortable than the boulder. He sighed and rolled his eyes, as if she had just worn him down too much for him to try arguing - really he just wanted to get to it. He wasn’t sure if he was actually embarrassed she could get to him like this, but he certainly wasn’t about to contemplate it now.

Like earlier in the evening, he approached her from behind slowly, and began to carefully cover her body with his own. He tried to watch beneath himself to monitor his own movements, but his vision was sort of getting hazy, especially watching Tally look behind her in anticipation. When he was far enough up to get something going, he lowered himself with as much care as he could muster, which wasn’t really that much at this point, his abdomen coming into contact with her backside, using the feeling of it to finally line himself up with her to start prodding against her entrance with a little squeak escaping his throat; it was much, much too slick for how he’d claimed to be exhausted only a few minutes ago. But he figured he could also blame it on Tally, since she’d been pretty open about being ready for a while now. Though the idea of _that_ being true just made his head even cloudier. There was really nowhere to turn to convince himself he was any less aroused than he was.

He watched her, at this angle compared to this morning it was a lot easier to look at her, even in the dark - the bioluminescence of his legs surrounding her cast her in a blue-green glow that made her whole body much too easy to see. But it was her face that really held his attention, as he began pushing into her, her face twisted, mouth dropping open. Again, he really wasn’t sure if watching this was a good idea, it was one of the best sights he could think of seeing, but it continued to put his resistance to the test. Gazing at her overwhelmed expressions had him quickly trying to swallow all the saliva in his mouth, his internal reproductive organs reacting, quietly threatening to end it right then and there.

As if that wasn’t enough, she reached between her own trembling legs to grasp his other gonopod and pull it between them, squeezing it with her thighs, and even though it wasn’t actually inside her, compared to last time when one had simply gone sort of unused, and earlier in the morning when he’d settled on rubbing it against the flesh of her stomach, this time he felt pretty damn surrounded by her body. As a result, he lost all his breath at once and had to gasp to catch it again, ending the sound noisily, and when it seemed like she had done all the adjusting she wanted (or at least, when he no longer wanted to wait and find out if she’d do more) he really didn’t waste any time, pulling out quite a ways before eagerly shoving himself back inside, watching her eyes widen in surprise, and seeing her reaction to the force of his thrust had him chuckle softly with pride - before the sound was cut off my his own groan, impatient even with himself.

Squeezing himself between her thighs wasn’t as graceful. Unlike inside her body which really didn’t put up all that much resistance, the muscles of her thighs, wonderful and warm as they were, weren’t exactly slippery, and closed around him, the flesh rolled with his motions rather than allowing him to move between them with any ease.

It was no trouble to actually enter her, it didn’t much matter that the rest of the gonopod had to remain outside, even folded up against her flesh, it maintained its shape alright, moving in and out of her body - but even the minimal resistance of her thighs were enough to sort of unbend his second one, gently tugging the front as he pulled backwards, and he was almost disappointed for a moment before, to his relief, his own slickness finally made itself useful and rid the motion of any resistance. As soon as this happened, he couldn’t help but moan happily, allowing himself to lose focus, just closing his eyes and enjoying the fulfilled feeling that he’d found, and thrusting into her with more abandon, enough to make sort of an obscene, wet sound that even he could hear from above, but Tally didn’t seem to care, just tense, holding her hands together to brace herself as her elbows dug into the grass, her eyes closed, moaning and whimpering in repetition, her hair and breasts swaying, just a little, her earrings rocking and glinting blue and green with each thrust. He could barely watch that, it was just too much, but even as he looked up and away to control himself he could see her in his mind, and the heat spreading through his abdomen let itself roll down and through his reproductive system, gasping and choking as the organs shuddered and became slicker; an eager whine slipping out of him as he picked up the pace even more.

Her breathing was loud now, and she was moaning enough that he couldn’t ignore her, the sounds making his chest burn, encouraging him to thank a god or two - or maybe pray to them for the strength to deal with the way she made him feel.

“Tamatoa… ” She managed breathlessly, and he was pretty sure he knew what she was getting at. He was more than happy to help her along, and also wondering why he hadn’t started it sooner, changed his angle a little to thrust upward, the appendage between her legs mercilessly grinding against her clit with his movements and to his pride and delight, she wailed and whined, and with her insides clamping down on him, her body shuddering, he tried with fervor to hold himself back from following her lead; grunting and quivering with restraint. He’d rather not have her be able to say he hadn’t satisfied her twice in a row, though he suspected she was probably content at this point, since she’d only requested one more round - if she wanted more, she was going to get more.

He slowed only a little for her to catch her breath before speeding up again, and he heard her gasp and choke.

“T-Tamatoa,” Her voice was completely unsteady, and she dropped whatever she was going to say next to make way for a loud whine, her body trembling again, and though he was huffing and gasping trying to keep his pace and stay ahead, he had to look down at her and just admire the cute expressions on her face, that he certainly was not at _all_ smug about putting there.

He changed his angle again, just a little, so the second gonopod wasn’t bearing down on her clit as much as just grazing it, which still had her shaking uncontrollably, but he wasn’t _that_ determined to show her what he could do. Besides, he wasn’t sure he could withstand her having another orgasm.

Still, it was good, _really_ good. Between how sensitive she’d succeeded in making him with her talk and her reactions and her body, his pride was also swelling, and the pleasure of that rivaling the physical sensations brought him down just a little to where he didn’t have to force himself with all his will not to just let go.

To take advantage of that, instead he started moving very slowly, to her surprise, and maybe horror? When he looked down at her, her eyes were wide and she was gasping, like she wanted to say something, but before she could form any coherent words he started to slowly slip into her again, which made her drop her head and groan noisily, her body just a little more unstable than it was a moment ago before he started pulling out again and she steadied herself for him to continue. He was in a sort of prideful, sexual bliss for just a few moments, repeating the motion only a handful of times, but watching her shudder and whimper underneath him pretty quickly had the pride part gone, and the primal part taking over; suddenly completely forgetting why he would ever want to postpone any kind of pleasure and with a gasp he went back to the angle he’d manufactured for her and picked up the pace rapidly. She yelped, and started gasping herself, grabbing the grass and crying out, and he was ridiculously close - but he would still wait for her, just so be able to say he did.

He didn’t have to wait long however, between the pace and the angle and probably her listening to Tamatoa’s own, now much more reckless vocalizations, she was climaxing all over again, and he had barely a moment of pride before she started grinding her own hips backwards to get as much depth and friction as possible from his body. While he felt this was sort of unfair, he didn’t really have it in his heart to give any more of a damn than that, the muscles inside her contracting again and her reciprocating grinding brought what was already a feeling of being delirious with pleasure to one of pure ecstasy.

After all that trying to show her she couldn’t just control him, trying to be the one to hold onto her pleasure, making sure he wouldn’t finish until he was completely sure she wouldn’t have any more grounds to keep goading him, the blinding white-hot static of his orgasm threw it all away. His mind went blank and his body filled with incredible heat, he was pretty sure he wasn’t even making any noises, just gaping and choking on air, squirming thoughtlessly above her, trembling and grinding into her ravenously, a senseless, desperate display, all because of the sneaky, stubborn little pirate beneath him.

When he came back to reality - which took quite a bit longer than usual, he finally relaxed, just enough not to actually fall on top of Tally, and he let his head hang down to look at her with what was almost a look of devastated shock, but mostly just wanting to remind himself she was there with him, for a reason he couldn’t really put into words.

She was there, trembling herself, not quite as relaxed as Tamatoa was now, and she looked up at him, on her way to calming down. As she did she blinked at him hazily before she opened her mouth as if to say something. Instead, she seemed to just laugh, genuine and warm, and he had no idea what was so funny, but whatever it was, it didn’t seem like it was at his expense, and she looked so happy he couldn’t help but smile back with his own little chuckle.

To his relief, she looked behind herself and reached back pulling him out of herself before turning back to him and crawling out from underneath his body. The moment she was clear he let his body drop completely on the ground, his eyes closed and taking what now seemed to be the luxury of a deep, calm breath.

When he opened his eyes, she was standing in front of him, and… Really _really_ covered in what was almost entirely his own mess.

On another occasion, he might have thought that was pretty hot in itself, but in all his exhaustion, and with how much there was, he just sort of grimaced. “You asked for it.” He told her, absolving himself of responsibility completely, and she giggled.

“I sure did.” She sighed, kind of wiping it off her body, making a definitely grossed out face.

He rolled his eyes with a grin. “Stop playing coy, you love it.” He winked.

She stuck her tongue out at him, and he laughed.

“I guess you weren’t as exhausted as you thought, huh?” She asked, referencing the sheer amount of evidence with a little smile.

He blinked for a moment before lifting himself just slightly to check his own situation and see how much of his own release had actually missed, or spilled out of her, which was still quite a lot.

He looked back to her with a scowl and just a little bit of embarrassment.

“No, now I’m just _twice_ as exhausted! If not more than that. You little leech.”

“I’ve been called worse.”

“I bet.”

He wasn’t surprised when she stepped to the side and ran past him, back into the ocean. He heard her yelp at the temperature and laughed a little before turning around to face her direction. On the edge of the beach, he used the grass to rid his own body of the mess, smothering the rest with sand after walking a few yards down the beach to get a better view of her. She wasn’t in the ocean long, unlike last time, she ran out almost as quick as she had run in, shivering and teeth clattering. Usually he liked when she was naked, this was kind of pathetic. She began to make her way over to her clothes but Tamatoa, in a little favor, reached over to pick them up and drop them into her arms.

She didn’t say anything, just frantically started putting them on over her wet body, struggling with the fabric on her damp skin, and he couldn’t help but smile at her and stifle a chuckle. An amazing tease, good swimmer, daring pirate - and a child when it came to basic tasks.

When she finally got her body covered up, she stood there in front of him as he lay on the beach and gazed at his face with a sigh and a smile.

He had to admit, she looked pretty good with clothes on too.

“Thanks.” She finally managed in a sort of raspy voice, her gaze searching his face affectionately before she leaned forward to plant a gentle kiss on the side of his mouth where the blue and pink bioluminescence met. He wasn’t sure if she was thanking him for the clothes or for the orgasms, but either way he just sort of smiled back at her.

She was quiet for a moment, contemplating something, and he watched her silently, not kidding about being exhausted, he didn’t even ask what she was thinking, just let her do it. Finally she put her hand on his face and leaned in a little.

“I love you too.” He tensed and his antennae perked up, eyes a little wide.

“What?” He managed.

“This morning you said you loved me. Not sure if you heard yourself say it, but either way, I love you too. Not just because you’re an amazing fuck. Though that does help… You… came to the human world for me. I don’t know what possessed you to do it, but I’m so glad you did. I’ve never known anyone or anything as incredible as you, and here you are, loving me back. I just wanted you to know that. Whether you want it or not, you got my heart, you crazy crab.”

He just looked at her, trying to search his memory. Had he said that? He couldn’t imagine why she’d say it if he hadn’t. Even if he hadn’t, he definitely felt it, so he supposed it didn’t matter. Not much at all. He just looked at her, searching her face right back.

“So what do we do now?” She asked with a sigh, and he quirked his eyestalks to different heights, wondering if she was going to give him that pretty little speech only to try to get him to participate in a  _round three_ … “Have we gotta go get crab-pirate married then? Something like that?”

He laughed genuinely, a little too loud, his heart warmed by the simplicity of the question. He should have guessed she’d ask something like that.

“How about we just start with getting some sleep.” He lifted his arm a little, and gestured to the space with the opposite claw. “C’mon.”

She looked from the gesture to his face in surprise. “Are you sure? You’re… not gonna move around and crush me in your sleep, right?”

He rolled his eyes. “I won’t move an inch, okay? Maybe if you hadn’t gone for that second swim I’d let you go off, but you just had to ‘clean up’ and now if you go back to your camp you’re just gonna freeze to death out there in your extra-sloppy tent. Or at the very least, catch cold. You’ve got a battle to win or something, isn’t that right?”

She shook her head with a grin and put her hands up in defeat.

“Okay! You convinced me!” She replied, approaching the crevice he’d made for her.

“Finally.” He huffed with annoyance, but it melted away pretty fast when she lay down on the sand, her back against his claw, just enough space for him to gratefully lay his head down against her, nuzzling into her stomach, against her cold face, and sure enough it wasn’t long before she seemed to warm up and fall asleep. He didn’t really know why, but he felt he had to add this to his list of major accomplishments. It was a dreamy thought though, and as soon as he was sure she was asleep he no longer seemed to be able to resist his own exhaustion, finally getting to essentially use her as his own pillow after all.


	14. Spindrift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> they talk about sex, but don't have it. they also talk about their future, but don't come to a conclusion.

It was shifting and soft, low noises that woke Tally up. For a moment she was completely disoriented, startled, before she remembered where she was, then with a deep breath she settled back into the sand.

She’d slept better than she expected to. As much as she couldn’t deny Tamatoa’s grace, and as much faith as she had in his feelings for her, she was still pretty unconvinced one way or another about his commitment to being careful with her. She’d survived through the night though without any injury, apart from the bruising that was inevitably forming as a result of the vigor with which they approached last night’s escapades, so she supposed that was one point in his favor. He didn’t seem to have moved at all, unlike her, who had rolled over quite a lot, and had sand caked on more angles of her body than she would have liked. Unlike when she had fallen asleep, her back was facing Tamatoa now, her forehead pressed against the inside of his claw.

He was also pressing his face against her side, she couldn’t really remember if he’d been doing that when she fell asleep, but the fact that it seemed to be what woke her up made her think not.

He didn’t seem to care about the fact that her clothes were pretty heavily decorated with sand, and pressed his mouth to her spine anyway, finishing the move by rubbing his whole face against her back affectionately, sighing and tightening the circumference of his arms to press her against him.

“Hey.” She squirmed, her voice full of sleep, and it didn’t come out like either a greeting or a protest, just a sound to let him know she was awake, she supposed. He leaned back a little to smile down at her with his own heavy eyes as she rolled over to face him, putting her arm under her head to gaze up at his face.

“Good morning,” He continued to smile in a singsong voice, “Did you sleep well, _ma souris?”_

“Um…” She let her eyes look around confusedly, “Yeah…” His glee was kind of weird.

“I am _so_ glad to hear that.” He continued in exaggerated relief, and she narrowed her eyes at him.

“Are you, now.” She let suspicion take over the sleepy tone of her voice.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” He asked with a blink, but still in a highly suspicious state of playfulness, “Can’t I be happy that _ma petite souris_ is well-rested?”

She squinted even harder at him, saying nothing, and he just grinned for a moment before bending his head back down to nuzzle his face into her again, against the front of her body this time, and she allowed it, even if her confused expression remained, lifting her arm to rest it on the middle of his face, her arm sort of hooking one of his eyestalks almost, which she was surprised he didn’t seem to mind, keeping his eyes closed as he brushed different sections of his face against her. This would probably usually make her at least a little flustered, but she was still sort of numb and disoriented from sleep, and mostly she was thinking it was a very nice way to actually wake her up past the initial consciousness, before, to her surprise he spoke up again.

“You’ve been working so _hard_ , babe.” He insisted, and she scoffed, waiting for an inevitable dig, but a joke at her expense was not what he ended with.

“And you’re going to work even _harder._ ” He chuckled against her body, and finally opened his eyes to curve his eyestalks and look down at her face, which was still very confused. He rolled his eyes at her lack of understanding for a second before grabbing the hem of her shirt with his teeth and yanking it up just a little to expose her stomach before putting his lips there instead, and her eyes went wide before she let out a nervous chuckle.

“Oh, man, really?” She whined, but was still smiling. “It’s so early!”

Tamatoa grinned pretty widely at this. “I seem to remember me saying the same thing to you, and you not being all that sympathetic. Are you saying you can wake me up for sex, but I can’t do the same to you?”

“It’s not that!” She whined, and for a moment he did lean back a little to make eye contact with her. “But we just did it like, a lot! _A lot_ a lot.”

He chuckled sort of humorlessly this time. “Hardly.” He added, “Besides it’s been at least seven hours since then. I wouldn’t call that ‘just’. _Plenty_ of time to regain your energy.” He had to point out before leaning his face in to her again and lowering his voice, and nearly whispering “Anyway, don’t you want to?”

With her releasing a sigh and yawn, he seemed sort of surprised at the reaction.

“Honestly, luvvie,” She told him, and he tried not to smile at the pet name that she didn’t seem to even notice herself saying, “I am _sore._ Don’t get me wrong, I know you’ve been really careful, it’s highly appreciated. And I’m no delicate flower… But ya gotta give me a little time to build up some resistance before we can really… y’know, splice a whole line of these little nippers.”

“I have no idea what that means.” He shook his head and she rolled her eyes, but he continued before she could explain it, “But I don’t want you to build up _resistance_ …” He said this low and near to her like he was confessing a secret. “I want you to feel _every little thing_ I do to you, _mi amor._ ” And he ended the little confession with giving more attention to her stomach and chest, and finally she was giggling. That was a good line, it definitely made her face heat up - but it definitely didn’t make everything below her bellybutton any less achy.

“How do you know French?” she asked while his mouth began roaming again, and he didn’t pause, just continued to take her in as he replied.

“I ate a French guy.” He told her plainly, “Now stop trying to change the subject.”

“Tamatoa…” She sighed seriously, and he pulled his head back again. She kept her hand against his cheek even as he moved away and looked at him with sincerity, just searching his face for a moment.

After a blink and a half he huffed and let his head fall again, just next to her on the sand though, and gazed at her.

“Listen, this is what I’m thinking, okay?” He began a new, more sincere pitch. Regardless, she folded her arms, even lying on the ground, and lowered her eyelids at him, daring him to convince her. “Remember yesterday? That was torture, right?”

She shifted uncomfortably and looked away before looking at him again. “Only because you kept teasing me all day.” She replied, unconvincingly.

“Oh come on,” He grinned at her with a wink, “You would’ve been hot and bothered all day anyway thinking about me!”

“Oh I would have, would I?” She rolled her eyes at his arrogance, but cracked a smile too.

“No more than I would have been, thinking about you.” He added, and this made her chest warm. Not turned on really, just grateful to him for feeling that way about her in the first place. Her face softened as a result.

“All I’m getting at is that maybe, _just maybe_ , if we had made better use of our time, like you staying with me after the party, we would’ve been a little more… _satisfied_.”

 _“Or… ”_ She wagged her finger at him, “It would have made us that much more impatient. I don’t know about you, but all I could think about yesterday was your cute face. In pleasure, I mean. All your heavenly expressions,” Heat was visible on his face in a flash, which made her smile, “If you had showed me more, I might have just had more to think about.”

“Uhh…” Tamatoa cleared his throat and looked away to shake off her comment before turning back to her, “To be honest I was mostly thinking about how soft your stomach was. Is. That felt _really_ good.”

She rolled her eyes at him, and put her hand under her head, the other on her torso.

 _“Men.”_ She sighed. Tamatoa sort of stirred, but didn’t really deny that he was in the category like she thought he might, which was pretty amusing. She chuckled. To her further surprise, he sort of leaned in closer to her.

“And also how good you taste.” He added quietly. She visibly shivered, and he grinned.

She paused, “You _do_ mean my cooter, right?” He rolled his eyes with incredible drama at her inelegance.

“Yes, I mean your _‘cooter’,_ thanks. Though the rest of you isn’t bad.” He winked, “Anyway both of those things I haven’t gotten to confirm since then... C’mon babe… Those pirates don’t even know where they’re going.” He added, sitting up a little with one claw and using his other arm to dig into the sand under Tally’s shoulder and lift her to a sitting position before sliding his claw up behind her back to have her lean against it before he let himself come back down and relax again, now directly in front of a sitting Tally; and now that she was just a little higher off the ground, he turned his head at her in a sort of half-hearted attempt at puppy-dog eyes. “No reports have even come in.”

She didn’t make any note of how he’d changed her position, just folded her arms and relaxed against the claw, pulling one knee up to stabilize herself as if sitting up had been her decision, and staring unwavering at his pout.

“We won’t know that until we go check.” She added with a point of her finger, and Tamatoa’s face fell as she stood up off the ground and began to dust the sand off of herself. The giant crab lay there for just another moment, watching her grumpily as she started toward the camp. When she got near the edge of the cove, she turned back around to sigh at him, leaning against the stone and putting her other hand on her hip to stare at him, still lying on the ground with a sour face. She rolled her eyes and cracked a little smile.

“It’s not like we’re never gonna have sex again!” She called, “C’mon, we’ll have plenty of opportunities to screw each other silly.”

“Will we?” He asked with a sigh. She was not expecting that answer, and silently watched him finally get to his feet and walk over to her. Despite towering above her, he looked down at her with a kind of emotional honesty, confiding in her. She just gazed up at him, straining her neck a little to give him her full attention and a confused frown.

“Your old man has the cross now.” He began softly, “After this whole… Whatever it is goes down, are you really telling me you won’t just sail away? Even if I thought your crew really had the conviction to make some real, piratey art for me, that’ll end too.”

She just looked up at him, eyes wide, trying to swallow back the sadness burning in her chest, trying with fervor to keep her from thinking clearly. She looked down at her own feet for a moment before turning back up to meet his gaze again.

“Tamatoa…” She began breathlessly, without much of a plan, “What… What would you have me do? Come live in the Realm of Monsters with you? You’d get sick of me after six months, tops. I’m sure you’d annoy me to death too. We’d drive each other crazy.” She smiled humorlessly, “Would you have me stay on the island and let my crew leave forever just to be able to visit you easier? What?”

He swallowed and seemed thrown off for a moment before, to her pleasant surprise, he began to speak again with relative confidence.

“Look, babe, one of the most appealing things about you is that you’re a temporary installation.”

Her eyes went wide, mouth agape before he raised a claw and shook his head. “I don’t mean it like that…” He took a deep breath, “I… wanttobewithyou.” He added, rushing through the sentence before continuing, “But you’re right, we’d definitely wind up absolutely hating each other if you stayed with me. I _really_ like the idea of you… Well… Not _leaving,_ exactly, but coming back, over and over again, you know, maybe with something shiny for me?”

She smiled despite the sullen mood.

“And I do think we really could…” He looked down nervously to kick a boulder over with his leg like it was a pebble under a shoe, and he was confessing to something, “We could stay together sometimes. Not here. Not in Lalotai. But… Well, like, some of the stuff we talked about, you know? We,” He cleared his throat and sort of broke eye contact, “We’ll go on little treasure hunts that inevitably turn into picturesque romantic getaways, and just do that over and over until we’re sick of it, we can part ways, and then do it all over again in a few months when we start missing each other.”

She relaxed against the stone with a smile, but he still looked hopeless.

“But…” He continued, “None of this will ever even get a chance to happen if you get half a day out to sea just to… run into even more pirates, or an unfriendly sea monster, or one of your clueless crewmates just shooting a hole through the bottom of your ship and sinking it and then you die and then I’m just…” He took a deep breath. “Waiting. Waiting to hear if you died. And then… you’re dead.”

She swallowed her melancholy and folded her arms. “Ah-hah; and how do I know that you won’t get into a fatal spat with one of your many, many monster pals, down there?” She pointed to the ground, indicating Lalotai, “What if I come all the way back here against all odds just to find you belly up?”

“I thought you _liked_ me on my back.” He couldn’t resist, and her expression didn’t move. He cleared his throat to continue, “Uh, that is… You don’t have to worry about that, babe. I’ve been alive for thousands of years. I think I’ve figured out the whole ‘survival’ thing for myself.”

“That’s what everyone says before they un-figure-it-out.” She wagged her finger at him, and he rolled his eyes with a huff.

“Seriously Tally, what are the chances that I’ll die compared to you? Don’t act like I’m crazy for wanting you to be alive, I think that’s a pretty reasonable wish. Even if you don’t just plain die like all humans do, how do I know when you’ll be back? That you’ll ever be back? That there’s even going to be any opportunities for you to come back?” He offered, “I-I get it, risk-reward, yadda, yadda, yadda… But I’m not just another weak little human.”

She raised her eyebrows at him, but he ignored her silent protest. “I should be able to do more than just… _hope_ that I’ll see you again.”

With a deep breath, she leaned back against the wall of the cove completely, sitting on the edge of a stone and letting herself relax and close her eyes. Tamatoa stood there, a little confused.

“What are you doing?” He asked curiously.

“I’m thinking.” She replied with her eyes still closed, then held up her hand and waved it once. “Now hush.”

With surprising patience, Tamatoa did just that; sort of interested to watch her sit there and think for a few minutes before she opened her eyes slowly, focusing them on Tamatoa whose head was now leaned down in front of her. He acted like he’d been caught looking at her too closely, but she put her hand out to touch his face, relieved to have him close.

“Listen to me.” She told him, and he just blinked, wide-eyed before adding a quick little nod.

“Just because there’s not an answer right in front of us doesn’t mean there’s not an answer.”

Tamatoa sighed and rolled his eyes, disappointed to not get a straight answer right here and now.

“I have…” She paused, and he perked up, “Some ideas, but I need some time. Let’s go back to the camp, start the day, and I’ll work on it, okay?”

He let his mouth quirk, his eyelids lifting to give her a very unsure look.

She smiled softly, and let her hand stroke his face for a moment, letting her gaze roam once over his face with adoration before falling back to eye contact. She punctuated it with a wink.

“Just leave it to me, okay? Don’t worry. You’re not the only one with power, you know.”


	15. Fair Winds And Following Seas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ✧･:*♥･:*♡~pirate romance~♡*:･♥*:･✧

She was in the ship a long time. After a while, Tamatoa wondered if whatever her plan was had something to do with her father; since that’s what he knew was in there. But later in the morning he saw the Captain walking around the boat and fishing, while Tally was still inside. Maybe a little relieving, he didn’t really like the idea of the crazy Captain getting involved in this, even in a minor way.

It was kind of interesting, Tamatoa couldn’t help but sort of feel the same way he had when, in Lalotai, she had entered caves and stuff alone. Places he couldn’t get to her, couldn’t keep an eye on her. It was one thing to part ways with her, but to know exactly where she was and also not be able to see her just made him kind of uncomfortable. He couldn’t quite relax.

The sailors took this opportunity though to actually talk to him, which sort of surprised Tamatoa. He wasn’t entirely sure he cared about what they had to say, but it was better than watching them plan from afar, and without Tally around he was kind of bored, so he humored them, sitting down on the sand to listen to them.

Most of the questions were about combat, which he probably should have guessed. At first the questions were boring, ‘what can you do?’, ‘how strong are those claws?’, snapping branches without effort, garnering praise, which was nice, but sort of simplistic. It was hard to be proud of something that was basically nothing for him, and uninteresting to do it. It was kind of funny when they started bringing him bigger, tougher things to cut in half or crush though; even sacrificing spare parts they had for their ship. After he managed to bend some pieces of metal, the pirates were all quite sure their battle was won.

Tamatoa honestly wasn’t sure how he actually felt about this. He was not a very social creature, let alone had ever had any interest in being a ‘monster for hire’. He was sort of just playing this by ear. Before the return of the heart, would he have done this? Would he have even let himself get attached to a human in the first place? This was inevitably a positive outcome - he was having a bit of fun with the pirates, and a lot of fun with Tally. He got to be in the human world, which was nice and peaceful, and having Maui and Moana on his side was quite a comfort, especially not expecting him to pretend like nothing had ever happened. (His pride had been damaged, maybe beyond repair, but not that far. No way. He’d rather die than feel like Maui’s little pet ever again.) He had admiration, friends, _love_ …

But, perhaps irrationally, he couldn’t convince himself he wasn’t still mourning who he used to be. It had only been a little while, after all. Barely a few years before he’d lost nearly everything. No matter how much he liked the direction things were going right now, it didn’t change the fact that everything he had worked for, _sacrificed_ for, was gone.

Lalotai still feared him to a point, he still had enough treasure to keep up his appearance, but it was no secret that he was essentially wearing everything he had. It felt like every monster in Lalotai had participated in stripping him of pride. Taking everything he had right before his eyes. He didn’t much like that now, being around these distinctly European pirates, he couldn’t help but dramatically compare his own ordeal to the kind of public humiliation they performed over there. Head in the stocks. On the other hand, at least he wasn’t executed, Lalotai-style. But past his survival instinct, he wondered if it would have been better if he had been. Now there was no point in dying, but if he could have then, at least he wouldn’t be forced to live with his humiliation. He wasn’t sure if they didn’t attack him because that is exactly what they wanted, because they felt he was too pitiful, or felt that he wasn’t even worth it. Whatever the reason they’d left him alive, they’d made it very clear he wasn’t king anymore.

He knew he’d lost his friends, made too many enemies in Lalotai to count, but that wasn’t what he cared about. What he wanted from Lalotai - what he wanted from _everyone_ was respect, fear, awe. He’d worked his whole life to get it. Put up with Maui for it. Destroyed relationships for it. Traveled for miles, fought tooth and nail for his ultimate goal. A goal that he _reached_. A goal that satisfied him. A goal he had written a really catchy song about! And... now that he didn’t have that anymore, he didn’t know who he was or what he wanted.

He was having a good time here, but they would leave, the excitement would end, and he wasn’t sure the addition of Tally to the permanent figures in his life would be enough to distract him from his identity crisis, as much as she maybe eased the pain of it. If Maui and Moana in all of their intensity and aggressive friendship really hadn’t turned him around on his negativity, he was pretty sure nothing ever would. Yes, he was enjoying himself, without his defeat he would not have lost it all, and without losing it all he would not have turned to Maui, and without Maui he would never have made it to the surface - probably never would have met Tally - but he couldn’t say with confidence that it was worth all he’d been through to get here. All the self-pity and maybe even a little self-loathing. Everything it had taken him to break him down to the point where he was really trying to be friends with someone he’d vilified for so long, the same people who’d made him helpless in the first place. To the point where he tied his feelings to a fragile human life, and foolishly let her lead him everywhere. He had no idea what he was doing. And when the pirates came to him for answers, for relief, he really didn’t know how to tell them why they shouldn’t. All he knew for sure is that he wanted Tally. He thought maybe somewhere he did care about the stupid pirates, and the villagers who could end up part of this mess, but his guarantee didn’t feel like much when it came out of his own mouth. Conviction had led to his downfall, and now he could hardly understand his own actions, let alone put his heart into it.

Not that he had any plans to ditch them, and if it made Tally even a little bit happy, it seemed like as good a use of his time as any, so he played along as much as he was comfortable. One strangely positive thing was when they got to asking about his leg, and Tamatoa shied away from the topic, the pirates didn’t understand why he would.

One pirate stepped up happy to take his place, pulled back his hair, grinning and pointing to where there wasn’t an ear. “I’ll tell ya how I lost me right ear!” He exclaimed happily. Tamatoa kind of winced at the gruesome scar, but to his surprise he heard all the pirates around him groan in exasperation.

“Harry,” One pirate addressed him, “If ye tell that god damn story _one more time_ …”

Harry frowned, and pointed up to Tamatoa’s face with juvenile flare, causing Tamatoa to curve his eyestalks inward in surprise.

 _“He_ hasn’t heard it.” Harry defended himself.

“He’s lucky!” He heard another voice speak up, but didn’t see where this one came from. Neither did Harry, but he scowled nonetheless. The pirate that had addressed him, himself stood up and, with his own nearly-toothless smile, yanked off his rancid boot, wobbling on one foot, to show a foot with only about three toes. “Now if you want a _real_ good story-” He began, and Harry cut him off angrily. “Got ‘em bit off by a piranha west of Brazil.” And the toeless pirate’s jaw dropped, “Next.” Harry folded his arms.

“You son of a bitch!” He jabbed his finger at his crewmate, approaching him quickly and seeming to forget his shoe. “You ruined the whole damn story!”

“Weren’t nothin’ compared to half the men here.” He sneered, “So you lost some toes, big feckin’ deal. None of us got all our toes, Samuel.”

Samuel raised a fist and before he could smack Harry’s remaining teeth out of his face, Tamatoa, wide eyed, spoke up and waved his claws a little.

“Whoah! Uh…” The pirates, suddenly remembering he was there, turned to him, “Fine, I’ll tell you about the leg! Just settle down, would you?”

And just like that, the two sailors dropped their defensive poses to turn their attention to Tamatoa completely.

With a little bit of courage, Tamatoa regaled them with the tale. Vague at first before they demanded details, and Maui’s name finally surfaced, none of them seemed to think it was strange that someone who was now his friend was the perpetrator, which was kind of charming. _Pirates_ , he thought. They’d fit in with the monsters in Lalotai without too much trouble.

The story continued, and became more theatrical as Tamatoa realized the audience was on his side for the performance; and when the story was finished he was met with a round of shouting and cheering, as if he’d been the victor. It was totally surreal, and very fun. He found himself sharing more stories with them, and, cautiously, asking to hear some of theirs too.

That is, until Tally finally appeared from within the ship, sort of underdressed again, hair plaited down her neck with a sleeveless shirt (it was safe to assume it had been hot in the ship), holding something in her hands he couldn’t see. Tamatoa was in the middle of one of his own stories when she did, and dropped it instantly to stand and make his way over to Tally, stepping over his pirate audience who were all shouting protests at his leaving them hanging, but they seemed to let it go mostly when he finally approached her. He was pretty sure they’d remind him to finish it later, anyway.

“Hey.” He looked down at her with a grin, and she looked up at him, sort of stunned by the excitement in his expression before smiling herself and giving a little breathless chuckle.

“Making friends?” She asked, looking around his legs at the pirates sort of talking amongst themselves, most still waiting for Tamatoa’s return. He turned a little to glance at them.

“I guess so.” He said, sort of making a face in the direction of the crowd. Maybe. In a way. He quickly turned his attention back to Tally. “What have you got there?”

Tamatoa was surprised that she began with a sigh attempting to slow her own breathing against nervousness before opening her hands and lifting them up, as if that would really help him see any better. He lowered his head to look at it, eyestalks bending to examine it closely, and it was a familiar sight. It was her little clay figure necklace, he couldn’t remember the name - something Gaelic - still tied to its twine, but now partly wrapped in some ragged, patterned fabric.

“Your little clay friend?” He sort of scowled, leaning back up. “You left me alone all morning just to play dress up with your doll?”

She rolled her eyes and ended on staring him down, a venomous glare, and he swallowed.

“I mean, um…” He cleared his throat, “It’s lovely, darling. Very creative.” He nodded formally. Finally she smiled and smacked his leg. “It’s just that I thought you were going to think about how to keep us together, you know, like, _together?”_ He added.

“I left you ‘alone all morning’ to turn her into a fetish.”

Tamatoa reeled back. “A _what?”_

She frowned up at him, then motioned silently for him to bring his head down to her level again, taking a deep breath before continuing in a low, quiet voice.

“Listen to me.” She asked, and it was such a desperate whisper, his heart dropped. He nodded; and before she continued she leaned back to make sure there was nobody within earshot. She even took a step away from where the surf ended its reach. He was on pretty high alert now. Keeping secrets from her crew? From nature? ...To share with him?

She took another deep breath before continuing, even quieter.

“It’s a soul jar.” She almost whispered.

“That’s not a jar, babe.” He corrected her, and she groaned.

“Remember how you said… you should be able to do ‘more than just hope I’ll be okay’? Because you’re a big strong, immortal monster, right?”

He nodded, still confused, but genuinely trying to take in all she was saying.

“Well, you can.” She sighed, “With this.” She moved her hand a little to signify the little sculpture inside. His eyestalks turned intently toward her face, and she seemed taken aback, just a little, but her eyes brightened at his attention, and she smiled. With a little shrug, she blushed, and he was very curious what about this situation was making her so nervous.

She pointed to the wrap around the figure. “I’ve sewed a lock of my hair into this.”

“That’s… kind of romantic.” He mused, and she smirked humorlessly.

“...And I’ve also stained it with my own blood.” She added, and opened her left hand to show a bandage wrapped around it, and he frowned, recoiling, not exactly happy that she would hurt herself, but also surprised at himself for it.

“You really are a witch, aren’t you?” He commented, a little disbelief, a little awe, and she looked up at him again.

“You bet I am, baby.” She grinned. “Just… Just listen. It’s a soul jar, which means it has a part of my life in it.”

“Your… life? What do you mean?”

“I mean, if I get hurt or sick, as long as this bit is safe,” She put her fingers around the figure, “So am I. Sort of.”

Tamatoa’s heart skipped a beat. “Don’t tell me you just went and found immortality in your dresser drawer babe! Why doesn’t every human do this?”

She sort of laughed, “Keep it down, would you?” She made a motion with her hands as if patting the volume down in mid-air, but was still smiling. “It doesn’t make me immortal. If anything it makes me more vulnerable. If this gets damaged or destroyed, I am absolutely fucked. Not to mention, almost every magic user would kill to get their hands on it. A person could do some serious damage… or creation with this as an ingredient.” Her voice kind of wavered as she said this, obviously fearing it as an outcome. “If I get hurt or sick, I’m still going to be hurt or sick. If someone wanted to torture me, I couldn’t even put myself out of my own misery.”

Tamatoa himself wavered inside at how easily it seemed to have occurred to her. For the first time since they’d arrived, he thought; _Pirates_ , with only disdain.

“I’ll still age and everything, I didn’t discover the fountain of youth. This is a last resort. It’s dark magic.”

His eyestalks bent to turn his face into one of almost hurt confusion.

“Why did you do this?” He asked, his voice kind of unstable and sad. “You did this for me? I don’t understand. This is totally insane, babe!”

She tilted her head and gave him a compassionate look, trying to convey positivity to him, in her own awkward little way.

“If you were human and you had this, you’d have some control over me. A connection to me.” She explained, “Someone like you though… A being of magic, you can do more with it. You can know what I feel, maybe even find me, if you try. Most of all, you can protect it. I’m… I’m gonna give this to you, alright? And when I leave, well, you’ll always know something about how I’m faring. And you’ll always know that you’ve got the padlock to the temporary chains around my mortality.” She paused as if she was finished, but seemed to remember something, “Oh, I’ll be able to feel you too! If you want me to. You have to have the intent and everything, but if someday you are just so hopelessly, _desperately, wildly_ craving me, clutch this and send me those vibes, big guy. I’ll make it back as soon as I can.” She clicked her tongue. Then she paused for a moment, looking at it in her hands, and then glancing at Tamatoa’s claws, then back again. She half-frowned. “Um… Maybe I can put it in an iron box or something first.”

He shook his head with a grin, and held out his claw for her to put it in, which she did, tentatively, and he closed it around the little figure gently, holding it up, and tilting his head at her as if her fear had been stupid.

He hesitated though, looking at it for a few seconds before looking at her face again.

“Are you sure you want me to keep this?” His voice was weak, and he wasn’t sure if he cared.

To Tamatoa’s surprise, she rolled her eyes as if it was a stupid question, “I _know_ it’s not shiny.” She raised her hands, “I tried to get something going with my other jewelry but they just didn’t mean enough to me for the binding to work. I had to start over like, thirty times!”

She laughed at herself, but quickly noticed Tamatoa himself wasn’t laughing. Her face fell and she just searched his unusual expression, frantic and confused.

“Yeah, I’m sure.” She told him with resolution. “Trust is a funny thing. I’m not sure any one person really fully trusts another,” She blew out a breath through pursed lips and chuckled, “I mean, I guess I must trust you, since I’m literally trusting you with my life. Part of it, anyway. But…” She shrugged, “I feel the same way you do. I want to see you again. I mean, I want to see you a _lot_ again. We can’t exactly send each other mail, now, can we? This is… well, it’s all I got, Goldie. I don’t know if I trust you, but I know I love you. That’s close enough for me.” She nodded. When she looked up at her giant crab, he was eyeing the little figure closely between looking at her with more adoration than ever, not letting himself actually believe his lip might be quivering. Shaking himself out of the well of emotion just a bit, he turned his neck slowly to look at his back, his gaze darting from one place to another before he settled on a little jewel box, which he carefully opened with a dusty crack, and placed the little figure inside before putting the top back on and sort of squishing the rim of it with his claw to make sure it wouldn’t fall open again.

As he did that, it seemed like she was letting her mind wander. From over his shoulder he heard her chuckle and continue talking.

“Also, maaaaybe I wanted to give you something that would remind you not to cheat on me when I’m gone.” Her voice was teasing, but he was pretty sure she was at least mostly serious. As she ended the sentence and he’d safely put away her little soul effigy (that he could swear he could feel the energy of it burning into his shell, even through all the gold… in a nice way) he continued to search around on his back and he could feel confusion coming from her direction. Sure enough when he turned back around she had a hand on her hip and was staring up at him with an eyebrow raised. He swallowed hard and didn’t change his expression as he leaned down toward her again and grabbed her hand with one pincer, the other one following suit to slide a ring onto one of her fingers. He let his claws drop as quickly as he put it there, and with a quickly overheating face he watched her turn her hand over in confusion, studying the ring, which, if it wasn’t too wide for her finger, it was certainly too big anyway. Heavy and gold and gaudy with what was probably a ruby, he wasn’t sure. He just froze waiting for her to finish her examination, which she did, then turned to him, her confusion still apparent.

“What… Is this for?” She asked genuinely, and he tried very hard to act like it wasn’t a big deal, but he was sure she would see through it, at least a little.

“Well…” He cleared his throat, “Same as you. Something to remind you not to cheat on me when you’re gone.” He nodded confidently.

She still seemed confused for a moment before her whole face relaxed and her jaw fell open. The gaze she gave Tamatoa next made him freeze, an involuntary shiver striking him from the tips of his legs all the way up his antennae. He expected her to give him that wicked glare again, back him into a corner of his own emotions, but to his relief, she did not. She welled up herself, apparently much less self conscious about the act than Tamatoa would have been.

“Thank you.” She whispered, staring up at him with the sincere admiration he could only feel as incredible warmth.

He bent down quickly, but slowed as he reached her eye level, tentatively moving forward with a question in his gaze. She smiled, wider than he’d ever seen her, and nodded, reaching her arms out to reciprocate apparently without fear, despite her crew only a few yards away, kissing his pursed lips gently, guiding his head to turn a little so she could press one of her lips into the crevice of his, and by Te Fiti, it was more than enough. He let his pincers settle gently on her hips, and let her hands press into his skin, pulling him towards her in a mock sense of deepening it, and maybe his fall from grace really _had_ been worth it. If just by a hair. Just because of the warmth of her face against his, just because of the magic trinket on his back, just because of the sunshine. Just barely.

“HEY!” Alvaro’s voice rang out pretty clearly, and they broke their kiss to both turn toward the group of pirates, at least half of which didn’t seem to care at all, most of the others sort of laughing good-naturedly, and elbowing each other with the thrill of future gossip. A few hollered, and the one that actually said something was Alvaro himself, drink in hand, he rocked back where he sat on the sand, squinting in their direction against the sun and grinning from ear to ear.

“CRAB FUCKER!” He laughed and hollered, and Tally, grinning back, one hand still on Tamatoa’s face, the other became a rude gesture and she pointed it playfully at Alvaro with her tongue out before cupping that hand around her mouth to shout back.

“FISH FUCKER!” She retaliated with a laugh, and Alvaro swung his bottle in the air in protest, almost falling backwards.

“MERMAIDS DON’T COUNT!” He insisted, which garnered a laugh from all the pirates around him, insisting that it was nothing to be ashamed of, but a fish ass is a fish ass. And despite the crude language and the weight of the responsibility Tally had just given him and the still present threat of attack, for Tamatoa, for a moment, all was right with the world.


	16. Batten Down the Hatches

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> kind of a weird chapter honestly, gotta move the plot along though lol

It was only a few hours into the afternoon that they finally got a report that the pirates were headed their way, and Tamatoa sort of surprised himself with how shocking the news felt, even though it had always been inevitable. Some part of him, he supposed, couldn’t have helped feeling like these bumbling pirates were playing pretend, seeing things that weren’t there, or at the very least overestimating their enemy, but when one came back with a full description of their numbers and their weaponry, calm and thorough real reconnaissance, Tamatoa suddenly found himself in the middle of what he realized was actually the little war everyone was making it out to be. To his further surprise, the pirates did not become frantic. They were such simple people, he would have put money on them losing what little composure they had, and begin running around like headless chickens. But no, they were surprisingly professional in their actions, immediately making plans together based on the direction the enemy ship was taking, how much time they had based on their path, and the way they talked about the geography and conditions of the ocean was also quite surprising. The pirates seemed so inexperienced on the island, barely knowing how to live sustainably for more than a few weeks on land, but they were confirming Tally’s impression that, though civilized life may not be their specialty, they really did know the ocean.

Naturally, the next few days were more productive than the rest of them combined. Tamatoa stuck pretty close to Tally for the most part as she seemed to disappear into the crew’s tasks, most of which involved taking half of the structures and all of the supplies from the beach and marching them into the forest to set up a new camp that was a lot more defensible. Not that Tamatoa could really confirm that with his own eyes, he was too large to actually make his way that deep into the brush. Not that he couldn’t just walk through the foliage with ease if he wanted to, but crushing the surrounding trees would kind of put a dent in that whole ‘defensible’ thing; so he mostly stayed on the beach and in the thinner parts of the forest.

Neither Moana nor Maui was around to help out, which made sense. Even the friends the pirates had made on the island weren’t really around, except to stop in and say ‘hi’ every once in a while. They were inevitably doing whatever they did in the village, and the crew seemed to have their routine pretty well-practiced. It made Tamatoa wonder how many battles had this crew actually fought. The only islander who actually participated was the young fellow who had played his drum at the little party they’d had that felt like so long ago now, who Tamatoa found out was called Enele. He had assumed he was just friends with the pirates, or interested in their instruments, but from what he understood now, he was actually planning to join them. That was something Tamatoa hadn’t even considered. But it made sense, he supposed. Despite the danger the fellow seemed to be having the time of his life, laughing with Alvaro as he taught him how to create a powder charge, told him stories of places far away, and reveling in pride as he taught the pirates ways to utilize the forest to their advantage, and make weapons from the natural resources. It was very basic knowledge, Tamatoa could tell. Enele was clearly a musician and not a warrior or someone skilled in the creation of such things, but the simple knowledge was useful to the pirates, and it was kind of charming to see Enele receive praise for something he probably never thought he could take credit for. Tamatoa couldn’t help but feel a little solidarity with that sentiment, and smile when Enele was taken by surprise with gratitude.

The way Tally seemed to work so naturally with the pirates was pretty swaying on top of the general teamwork vibe of the whole situation, and Tamatoa found himself strangely happy to be a part of it. 

Coconut crabs were not social creatures.  _ Monsters _ were not social creatures. And Tamatoa himself was probably the least social of all in those categories. Even in Lalotai when monsters congregated, he did not join in, even if he _ could  _ socialize with those he’d betrayed and stolen from, he didn’t want to. The fact that he was finding some contentment in participating in a group activity - one he didn’t even really benefit from, at that - was highly irregular. Was he really that broken? So defeated, so down on himself that even something as unrewarding as this was enough to lift his spirits from where they lay? Or maybe he was that trapped under Tally’s thumb? Was he really so obsessed with Tallulah that he was even happy to work for her friends, just because they were hers? Or was he really so lost that there was no explanation? Was the old Tamatoa really gone? Living more mindlessly than ever? Perhaps the strangest thing out of all of all the strange things he was doing was that he wasn’t really all that interested in analyzing it at all. It felt like it should bother him, but it just didn’t.

Maybe it was all three of those things. Maybe it was none of them. But he didn’t feel used, he didn’t hate it, it was even rewarding, a little. They worked, ate and slept, all together mostly, and despite the fact that Tamatoa would have preferred to spend his nights exclusively with Tally, whether or not they utilized that privacy or not, it was kind of comforting to be able to sort of keep an eye on them, now that the danger was imminent. At times he even felt, with some amusement, that he was sort of joining Tally in the task of parenting this little army, which was a pleasant and new kind of ego boost he didn’t really know he would enjoy - even if some of them, like Harry and Samuel, felt a little more like pets than children. All-in-all, he found that he didn’t actually mind spending time with the pirates (even if they were a little smelly). Morbidly, Tamatoa couldn't help but think how lucky they were that they were pretty unappetizing too, especially around lunchtime. They weren't exactly tempting snacks.

After the news reached him, the Captain himself even emerged from his cabin on the ship after some of the men helped park the vessel in a rocky inlet to keep it out of sight. With the Captain around, things did become more streamlined, he fine-tuned their ideas, fleshed out their plans. Tamatoa wasn’t sure if this was deserving of any of his respect, it was nice to see that he wasn’t a complete brat. He really did care about the crew, and have a good grasp on the abilities of each of the men and how to best utilize them. Things were moving quickly now, the preparations were becoming more and more focused on details.

One afternoon, when the pirates were all busy laying down traps in the woods, too far in for Tamatoa to really hang around, he sat on the edge of the beach near the forest under one of the few shady spots he could really find to give him any relief from the sun, and just gazed out at the ocean, too tired to think about much at all, which was a pleasant sensation. He almost began to fall asleep, when the bespectacled Captain seemed to appear in front of him, and Tamatoa’s eyes widened. The captain began to pace a little, examining him, a little like how Tally would when she was admiring him, which made sense, but was still a little weird.

He watched the Captain with contempt for a moment, but eventually spoke up.

“Can I help you?” He asked exasperatedly. The captain seemed to sort of jump and step back.

“You  _ can  _ talk! Right! I was sure I hadn’t imagined that.” The Captain’s pride in his memory being confirmed was very annoying. Tamatoa was not here to make him feel good about his recollection skills. What’s more, Tamatoa had been conversing with the pirates regularly. He wasn’t surprised that the Captain wasn’t observant enough to notice, but it didn’t exactly add to his respect for the man.

“My crew seems quite fond of you. I came to see what all the fuss is about, I suppose.” He made a pensive face, and Tamatoa watched the Captain stare at him for another moment before getting impatient.

“Well?” He asked gruffly.

“I must admit, you’re quite the specimen!” He noted. “The crew and I have met a few monsters in our travels, and none have been quite as… thoroughly decorated as you appear to be. Very impressive.”

“Gee. Thanks.” Tamatoa rolled his eyes. “Feel free to leave me alone now.”

“Nonsense!” The Captain waved his hand, “There’s something else…My daughter, Tallulah.”

_ The one I’ve made cum five times? _ He thought with a sinister smirk. “Yeah? What about her?”

“She’s, er, a grown woman.” The Captain nodded.  _ You bet she is, _ Tamatoa thought. “And she can make her own choices.”

Tamatoa narrowed his eyes down at the man, daring him to continue.

“I want to ask you to… remember that she has people who care about her.”

Tamatoa frowned. “What?”

“Tallulah has never been one to necessarily fall victim to her own feminine whims,” The Captain said this sort of to himself rather than Tamatoa. “And maybe this infatuation she has with you is partly magical in nature,” He continued, and for some reason that sentiment gave Tamatoa a lump in his throat. A bit of anger was bubbling in his chest, too. The Captain finally turned to look Tamatoa in the face. “I’m sure humans are completely disposable to a creature such as yourself, naturally so. I don’t know what you have to gain by helping us here, though I’m grateful you are, and Tallulah seems to be happy for now, so I’ve no objections to you being here and doing… whatever it is your doing. But I hope, when it’s time to make a decision, you will show mercy and release her from your thrall.”

“My ‘thrall’?” Tamatoa’s face instantly turned to one of disbelief. The Captain seemed not to notice.

“She is no immortal. She can only satisfy your monstrous lust for so long, you understand. I don’t want her life spent at your mercy, because of your selfish desire. She may be a treasure to you, but please think of what’s best for her. A life spent as a captive, even a happy one, is no life at all.”

“A captive!” Tamatoa cried, grinding his teeth and standing to his full height angrily. The Captain took a few steps back, eyes wide, but not showing any particular fear. Well, at least he had conviction. “I’ve never  _ forced  _ her to do anything, can you get that through your thick head?”

The Captain simply stood, apparently waiting for Tamatoa to continue defending himself, which was infuriating in itself, but that’s exactly what he wanted to do. His  _ own _ way. Enough civility. The Captain obviously saw him as a monster first, so that’s exactly the side he’d show him. He stepped closer to him and brought his head down to glare at the Captain. Finally, he saw some fear in his eyes. Good.

_ “The only reason I’m not tearing you limb from limb right now _ is because I’m thinking about  _ ‘what’s best for her’ _ , pal.” He lifted his claw to gently push the captain back a few feet. Angry as he was, his mind was reeling, trying to cross off all the things he wouldn’t be able to take back, and still get his point across. Really, all he wanted to do was just that, tear him limb from limb for his ridiculous accusation; or at least frighten him into submission, but neither of those things would probably make Tally very happy. _ In-laws _ , he thought, with some amusement. One of the trials of devotion, he supposed.

“You’re calling _me_ selfish? Are you kidding?” He kept it on a low simmer, quite proud of himself for it, in fact, “You think she really wants to spend her life chasing after _your_ stupid little toys? Dragging her all around the world so you can play scavenger hunt? Ever stop for once and think maybe she’s smart enough to like me for the right reasons? _I_ make her _happy,_ _Cap’.”_ He added, venomously, “No ‘thrall’ necessary, whether you believe it or not. But it doesn’t matter.” His tone changed to one of pure confidence, and spoke matter-of-factly, “Because you really can’t stop us from doing anything we want to do. You’ve got no power here at all.” Tamatoa realized with a chuckle, “I’m not some poor little suitor you can scare away, no way man. I’m _Tamatoa_. Great collector of Lalotai. I’m _pretty_ sure I outdo you in the treasure department. ...And the _strength_ department. Probably wits too.” He paused, “No, _definitely_ wits too. I’m thousands of years old, did you know that? I’m feared even by other monsters. And your daughter’s pretty much got me wrapped around her finger, so maybe you should go congratulate her on her incredible catch instead of trying to find some stupid reason to hate me.” He settled back down into the sand triumphantly.

The Captain stood there for a moment, staring at the sand with a hand on his chin, thinking, before raising his head to look at the, now sitting, monster crab in front of him. To Tamatoa’s utter and total surprise, he spoke with almost complete neutrality.

“Hm,” He began. “Maybe you have a point.”

“I do?” Tamatoa squeaked, completely flabbergasted.

“Well,” The captain gestured to him with one hand vaguely, “You’re certainly a fearsome presence. I suppose you’re qualified to protect her, at the least. Especially if even other monsters fear you.”

He just watched the Captain continue to think, his mouth agape. Tally must have gotten her stubbornness from her mother or something, because this was absolutely surreal.

“I suppose only time will tell if you’re a… a crab of your word. Certainly you understand that I am perfectly within my rights as her father to be concerned about her future.” He offered, and Tamatoa pursed his lips.

“Personally,” He snickered, “I think you’re just freaked out by the idea of your daughter spending her nights with a crab. Understandable!” He continued, cheerily, “But I’m sure she has no complaints.”

The Captain just gave a defeated sigh and began to walk back into the woods. As he left, Tamatoa heard him mumble. “At least I don’t have to worry about grandchildren…”

“Don’t be so sure!” Tamatoa called after him in a singsong voice, punctuated by a plainly disrespectful laugh; but all-in-all he was feeling very good about the interaction. He hadn’t killed the man, or even hurt him, or even really insulted him. Surely, Tally couldn’t want any more from him than that. He couldn’t help but amuse himself, thinking briefly about how the Captain would react if Tamatoa started calling him ‘dad’.


	17. Bombay Runner

It was early in the morning when an explosion woke Tamatoa up. Despite being able to picture them pretty easily in his head, explosions were not exactly common in the area, and the sound was louder than he could ever have guessed. Tally had first escaped his cave using explosives, and somehow he had felt that experience was all he needed to know, but this was not just the combustion of gunpowder. It was metal against metal, fire and smoke, and he ducked his own head under his shell for just a moment instinctively in case anything had been sent flying.

Standing up and stumbling a little as he woke up, he shook his head, watching pirates run across the beach frantically, and he couldn’t locate where the explosion had come from until he noticed one of the cannons they had set on the shoreline was now a smouldering pile of iron and wood. Apparently he was right to duck, he realized, as he plucked a chip of iron from the ex-cannon off of his back where it obscured his precious display. He examined it for a moment before hearing another blow, from far off to the right, high on a hill where the cannons that had been in better condition had been mounted, and he didn’t see where the cannonball landed until there was a loud splash and a crunch as one of the rowboats coming toward the shore was overturned and smashed against the waves. He stared at it, wide-eyed, and couldn’t identify if all the passengers came up out of the water, especially because the large ship Tally had described was coming in fast right behind the small group of rowboats that quickly neared the shore, only for pirates to run up through the surf, waving their swords and daggers, screaming and falling into many one-on-one battles with Reginald’s crew faster than Tamatoa could keep track of them.

After a moment of being shocked, he looked around to find Tally. He didn’t think twice about why none of the pirates were actually attacking him directly despite him being the most obvious target, he just had to find her. He skirted along the edge of the beach looking in between the trees frantically before he saw her appear from where most of the other pirates did, her own sword held high for just a moment before she was neck-and-neck with one of the ‘Reddies’, as he’d heard the enemy pirates called. Fear ran through him for a split second before he bound in her direction. To his pleasant surprise, just before he could approach and save her from her enemy, he watched her win the match, dodging the pirate’s swing and shoving her sword straight through his stomach, and out his back. She had to use two hands to do it, and after she did, she seemed unable to remove the sword, but the confidence and skill with which she executed the move had Tamatoa captivated, even in the midst of the frenzy.

“Tally.” He demanded her attention, and she turned to him, then back to her sword stuck in the enemy, apparently deciding whether or not to try and wrench it from him, then back to Tamatoa and nodded, conceding apparently, not that Tamatoa cared why she agreed as long as she did, and with the instruction relayed by his claw, she ducked behind his legs, and immediately began fumbling with her belt to pull out a new weapon. He backed them both into the edge of the forest, getting as much cover as a 50-foot crab can, and ducked his head down to talk to her over the noise of the canons going in both directions.

“If you keep fighting,” He managed, “I’m not gonna help!”

“What?” She asked, barely looking at him as she readied some powder charges. He shook his head, trying to think of how to communicate simply with the flurry of sounds surrounding them.

“I said I’d help your crew, in return you have to stay safe, okay? Get it?”

“That was not part of the agreement.” She called back to him and he growled exasperatedly. “This is my fight. I can’t leave them.” With this, she lit one of the charges and tossed it out from between Tamatoa’s front legs, both of them watched it explode near one of the incoming enemies and wound his leg beyond repair. Tally hollered happily from where she took cover, but Tamatoa’s blood ran cold, all he could think about was how easily that had happened, how easily that could happen to Tally. He pushed her back with his amputated leg for a moment to get her attention again.

“I don’t care! If you don’t fall back, I’m just going to force you.”

“Tamatoa!” She objected, “Don’t you dare! They need me! They need all the help they can get.”

 _“Please.”_ He hissed and watched her face soften, realizing with relief that she was conceding to his plea.

“For now.” She told him, “Just during the first attack. I’m not sitting this whole ordeal out, understand?” She told him, and he chuckled breathlessly, more than happy to agree to anything that got her out of danger at this moment.

“Yes ma'am.” He sighed.

 

* * *

 

 

Tally, with a lot of mixed feelings, ducked into the forest for a moment, only to watch with jealousy and apprehension as Tamatoa himself approached the battle and really just began picking off the enemy pirates one by one, all those not fast enough to dodge him, which most weren’t, a lot of Reddies lay on the beach in two halves each, and she had to admit, it was quite a captivating show. At least, it was until Redburn himself showed up. She had no idea how he made it to the shore without a scratch, but there he was, and in his own, signature, wannabe-nobleman fashion he called to both his crew and hers with theatrics.

“Gentleman!” He called, “And lady.” He added, making eye contact with Tally even through the trees.

To Tally’s annoyance, his voice was as commanding as ever and the fighting slowed. He’d seen her, there was no reason to hide anymore with the fighting decreasing, and she stepped forward onto the beach again, much as it may have made Tamatoa frown.

Compared to the chaos a second ago, the lack of sounds of battle was eerie. Tally had never witnessed a battle go this way, as much as Redburn was likely to try and use a silver tongue, this was strange. There was something off.

“We can end this with peace from here on out!” He assured everyone, and Tally’s eyes scanned the beach, making note of many of the mutilated and dead pirates from both crews. This seemed very unlikely, but she heard her father’s voice call out the enemy captain before she saw him step forward, sword in hand, and it filled her with warmth to see her father in - what she considered to be - his element. No matter how crazy he seemed, he was a good pirate. A good captain. She couldn’t help but relax with him taking charge. Even more than that, she was surprised to see him so ready to negotiate with their regular enemy. He was no coward, he would not hesitate to fight. The men knew what they were in for when they went into this business for themselves, and her father never forgot that. Yes, it would be practical to just turn over the jewelry the Reddies wanted. She knew her father didn’t really care about them; but that was not how piracy worked. The necklaces were only part of the catch, everything else they had, including their lives, were also on the table. The only explanation she could think of for him to pause was that he was heeding the words of Maui, and willing to be diplomatic for the sake of trying to end the fighting as far away from the village as possible. She was proud of him.

“Speak.” He demanded of Redburn.

Redburn didn’t drop his own weapon, but he gave a bow as if surrendering anyway before stepping off the edge of the rowboat he was perched on to walk on the sand casually in front of Cutter.

“I have a proposition for you and your crew.” He began, “We came for the jewels as you’ve probably deduced, but since we entered these waters we’ve been observing you,”

Tally’s throat went dry. This was a surprise. She couldn’t imagine the implications all at once of what it meant that they had been keeping an eye on her crew as much as they had kept an eye on Redburn’s.

“And we’ve noticed that you have something much more valuable to us.”

“You want the cross, is that it?” Cutter grit his teeth, and to everyone’s surprise and fear, Redburn laughed, loud and boisterous.

“No!” He began patronizingly, “You can keep your useless cross, you senile old man.” All the pirates were silent now, and Redburn raised his sword to point across the beach.

Toward Tamatoa.

“I want _that.”_ He insisted, his gaze unmistakably settled on Tamatoa, much to Tally’s confusion and horror. She looked up at him, and he was just wide-eyed, staring silently at the enemy captain. For a split second he took his eyes away to look at the treasure on his back and then back to the captain, who noticed, and tilted his head knowingly.

“Don’t you dare touch a piece of that treasure, monster.” He warned, “We want you in one piece. If a single item of that display is out of place, your crew _will_ pay.”

To Tally’s utter surprise and happiness, her father actually spoke up in Tamatoa’s defense.

“He’s not an animal.” He informed Redburn calmly.

“Oh, I know.” Redburn continued giddily, “He’s _so_ much more.”

When Tamatoa, in all his Tamatoa-ness, finally spoke up, he spoke with casual incredulousness. Shaking his head with a disbelieving smirk, he took a step toward Redburn.

“Sorry to spoil your really great plan, but there’s no way I’d fit on that ship anyway.” He said this with humor, but Tally’s mood remained dark, as did Redburn’s expression. He shook his head slowly back up at the giant crab, and clicked his tongue a few times in smug disagreement.

“Oh yes, you will.” He informed him, “The entire lower decks have been cleared, and if you cooperate, you’ll fit in there just fine. We’ll all be sleeping on the deck just to make room for you, doesn’t that make you feel special?”

Tamatoa just scowled at the captain. To Tally it sounded like a bluff, but she couldn’t imagine there being a reason for him to say any of this if it wasn’t true. Her mind was reeling.

“Listen here,” Redburn continued with a dramatic sigh, “Either he comes with us willingly,” He pointed to Tamatoa, “Or we kill you all, take the jewels, the cross and bring him with us anyway. He’d still be worth a fortune or twelve dead. Maybe we’ll even make a supply run to that village on the other side of the island on our way out. It’s your choice.” He stretched his arms out to address the whole crew, and Tally wasn’t sure she had ever felt more trapped in her life.

She looked up at Tamatoa’s face, and he had an expression she really couldn’t place. Maybe he was feeling betrayed by the very idea that the crew even was being given the option to hand him over like he was theirs to give, but everything was happening so fast, she couldn’t make any more sense of that line of thought.

“No deal.” Her father said without almost any deliberation, and Tally’s heart swelled for just a moment before Redburn nodded once and the fighting started up again. It was only a few minutes of continued violence before they began to retreat to their ship to prepare for their next charge, as obviously Redburn had expected that the disposal of the first wave would be enough to convince her crew to give them Tamatoa and had to recreate their plans. It was very satisfying to see them run, and doubly so to watch Tamatoa pick off the remaining stragglers with much more gusto, even eating some of them, quickly and sloppily, not seeming to particularly enjoy it though; after about three he looked down at Tally with a grimace.

“I should have expected they’d be rotten.” He joked in the middle of the chaos, and it broke Tally’s stress in half. She laughed and leaned against his leg in a split second of peace and gratitude before continuing to join the crew in pushing the Reddies back. Tamatoa didn’t object this time, probably because they were winning, or maybe he changed his mind, but even when Tally received a large gash in her arm from a pirate she quickly disposed of with her dagger on his throat, Tamatoa seemed nothing but happy to witness her actions.

Soon, they found the whole crew diving back into the forest toward their camp to re-group, Tamatoa in tow as well, despite him clearing a dangerous path in his wake. Tally was sure they wouldn’t bring him into the camp just to expose it to the elements, but there didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason as to why he was coming with them other than to get him out of sight.

Nearing about halfway to the camp, they slowed, and Tamatoa eyed Reginald for a while as they walked before finally speaking to him.

“No deal?” He repeated as a question. The Captain looked up at him, apparently nothing but confident in his decision.

“Understand pirates, robber crab.” He wagged his finger up at him as they walked, as if he was giving him a life lesson, “Keeping our word is not what we are well-known for. If we surrendered you… _somehow,”_ He eyed the size of him, “We would simply no longer have you as an asset, and they’d attack us with full force. ‘Peace’ is not in a pirate’s vocabulary.”

This was the truth, but Tally couldn't help but wonder, or at least imagine, that maybe her father was actually starting to warm up to Tamatoa, or at least understood what the crew liked about him. Even if protecting him was just to make her happy, knowing he was on Tamatoa's side was more than enough to warm her heart.

And with that, he turned to lead the pirates toward the camp. Tally stopped him though, and the Captain let the pirates continue forward without him, now that they were close enough to their hideout.

“What is it, girl?” He asked.

“There’s something I think I…” She looked up at Tamatoa who had also paused, then back to her father. “I have an idea. I need to go to the ship.”

“Tallulah,” He growled, “Surely they are setting up their own base elsewhere on the island as we speak. At least come back to camp and equip a new sword before you go.”

She grinned, eyes tired. “Don’t worry dad, Tamatoa’s coming with me.” She told them both at the same time. “It’ll help, I promise.”

 

* * *

 

Cutter conceded and after a kiss on the cheek, handed his daughter his own sword and shared some routine warnings before letting her and Tamatoa go off alone, her leading him toward the beach again, and the thinner forest. If Tally wasn’t telling him what she was doing because she thought it was obvious to him, Tamatoa wasn’t sure how to tell her that it definitely wasn’t. After they had lost the crew completely, and Tally was actually leading him rather quickly through the brush, Tamatoa spoke up, trying to get some information.

“Where are we going..?” He asked, it came out sort of nervous, which was probably natural considering the stress of the situation and the uncertainty of this little detour, but he still didn’t really like the way it sounded. Tally didn’t seem to react one way or another to his tone, though.

“Um…” Tally continued to look forward as they went along, but made a pensive face to herself, “Like I said, we’re going back to the ship. They moved it to an inlet on the northwest side of the island. There’s some magic I want to do - my stuff is there.” Tamatoa sighed, accepting that this was probably all the information he was going to get, and reached down to grab her collar and drop her on his back for the first time in a while now. She yelped in protest, but he ignored it.

“If I have to wait for you to lead me there, we’ll be out here all night.” He huffed, and continued on the path she’d set them on.

“Tamatoa!” She called, “If you won’t slow down, at least keep an eye out.”

“I can handle anything in these woods, babe.” He assured her.

“That’s not what I mean.”

He slowed. “Oh no?”

“Just try and remember the path. I can’t see it from up here. Look for landmarks.”

He just turned his face to look at her sitting up there with an expression of confusion and disbelief.

“Babe, I can see in _every direction.”_ He noted, “I don’t need to look for _landmarks.”_

“Just do it, please?” She huffed, and he turned his head back toward their direction.

“If you say so.” He decided.

Soon, thanks to Tamatoa’s long legs, they arrived at the inlet, and the moment he placed Tally on the sand, she made her way through the rocks and up the side of them to get into the ship, like a little monkey or something, which was at least sort of a cute sight for how far they’d come. The rocks served their purpose in obscuring the ship, Tamatoa himself couldn’t even see the ocean over them, they hid the area very well, and as she was rummaging around in the ship and the sun began to go down, the whole beach was half-swathed in shadow.

Eventually, she emerged from the ship, carrying a large cloth bag and rummaging around in it. The hidden nature of the inlet and the time she’d spent on her task had Tamatoa feeling sort of peaceful for the first time all day, and as she approached him he grinned.

“You know, this is the first time we’ve been alone together in days.” He chuckled.

She smiled up at him for just a moment before going back to looking in her bag. “Down boy.” She joked with a hand wave, and Tamatoa laughed.

He watched curiously as she pulled out a series of items and placed them on the sand in front of her. A sealed jar of salt, a little bag that made a dry crunchy sound, a black candle and a vial of what seemed like just plain water.

“So um,” He cleared his throat, “What’s your plan here, babe? Early dinner?”

After she’d set them all on the ground and her bag too, she stood up and put her hands on her hips looking him up and down for a moment.

“Have you always been as big as you are?” She asked intently, and he was taken aback. The question seemed to come out of nowhere and its relevance to the situation was mystifying. He played along nonetheless.

“I mean, no. I was a kid once. I’m a monster, but you know I’m actually a real coconut crab, right? I had to wriggle my way out of an egg just like everyone else.”

She smiled and kind of chuckled breathlessly. “I mean, is this natural for you? Was baby Tamatoa…” She reached her hand up high with her palm down, indicating height, “...Taller than me?”

He smiled, still pretty confused, but charmed by her questioning. “No.” He shook his head, “Definitely not. I was…” He held up his claw and made a little space between his pincers, “Well, I was pretty itty bitty, to be honest.”

“Hm.” She put her hand on her chin, and he dropped his claw.

“What’s this all about, babe? Why the sudden interest?”

She let go of her introspective state and met his eyes.

“How do I say this…” She blinked, “How would you feel about maybe… Being a little easier to hide?”

Tamatoa blinked down at her. “Are you asking me if I can make myself smaller or something?”

“No, no.” She put out her hands and made a little motion as if wiping away the idea in the air, “I’m asking if _I_ can make you smaller. Just temporarily.”

His jaw dropped. “Can you do that?!” He wasn’t sure whether or not to be simply shocked, or excited, or offended, or what.

“I think so.” She replied taking a deep breath. “But you have to participate or it won’t work at all.”

He looked at the items on the ground once over before making eye contact with her again. “What do you mean?”

“You have to work with me. Like, I can’t decide what size you end up as, you have to do it. You could maybe even make yourself grow using this stuff, if you wanted to, but you need to make that choice, does that make sense?”

“Sure.” He replied without much analysis. “I’ll try.”

“Does that mean you’re willing?”

Her face was so serious, it made Tamatoa crack up. “Sheesh! Yeah, I’m willing! At the very least, I’m curious to see if you can actually do it, babe.”

“I’m just hoping you’ll end up small enough to come back to camp with us and go through the forest without, you know, tearing it to shreds. Maybe you could keep that range in mind, okay?”

“Aye aye.” He winked with an excited grin. “Let’s do it.”


	18. Shakedown Cruise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> emetephobia trigger warning

Tally stepped back for a moment, looking up at Tamatoa. “Do you have anything up there you can break?”

“Excuse me?”

“Basically I’m gonna… Put your… _size,_ I guess, and just a little of your own magic, and stick it in a container. When you break it, you’ll be back to normal. If it’s something that’s already yours, I can skip a bunch of steps.”

“Uh-huh.” He looked at her skeptically, waiting for more information, and she dug her boot into the sand for a moment nervously.

“Also, it might not be… particularly pleasant for you.”

With eyes widening he tilted his head towards her with just a bit of frantic intent “Details, babe!” He demanded.

“Well I’m just not sure how it will affect you! Physical spells are physical spells, and every body is different. Adjustment is hard but this isn’t a curse, whatever weirdness happens it won’t last. Can you get me that container now, please?” She sort of bounced impatiently in place.

If he was being honest with himself, even if he wanted to leave the island, escape the human world in general, get back to Lalotai, he wasn’t sure how he’d sneak away at his current size anyway. Not that being able to change his size was ever on the table, but in the moments since Tally brought it up, it was just too useful not to speculate about.

He wondered what pre-heart-returning Tamatoa would think about that. He’d promised himself he’d never hide. He’d always be proud of who and what he was. Before the return of the heart, he could never have imagined himself giving up any of his aweing presence, even for convenience, and yet, here he was. Well, at least he could say it was love that sent him down this strange new path. That was a comfort. Maybe.

With that thought, he turned to search around on his back, and looked through his treasures. Soon, he reached down and handed her a rather large turret shell. She looked at it in her hand for a moment, then looked back up to him skeptically.

“What? If we’re gonna have to break it, might as well make it something replaceable, right?”

“This might be a little _too_ breakable, luvvie.” She warned, and he smiled flippantly.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s pretty tough, all my pretty shells are. Otherwise I wouldn’t have them as part of my own armor now, would I?”

She blew out a deep breath. “If you say so.” She conceded, sort of examining the weight and structure of it in her hand before ultimately deciding it was okay. “Sit back down, would you?”

And he did.

Kneeling down on the sand herself, she created a little hole in the ground in which to set the candle, which she lit carefully with a pretty damaged match that she smothered in the sand and left there. She then opened her little fabric bag and pulled out a dry, dead leaf; and despite the uncertainty and intrigue of this new territory, Tamatoa couldn’t help but be sort of fascinated watching her do this with so much confident deliberation. Her face was serious, but soft, and her movements were clearly second nature. It was a little bit captivating, especially thinking this was a ritual she was creating for him, personally.

She took the leaf and let it catch fire over the candle, and dry as it was, it went up almost instantly. With this, she dropped it into the turret shell, and watched it burn inside for a moment before blowing into it, letting the smoke rise, and setting it down in the sand again, open side up, in a little hole in the sand like the one she’d made for the candle.

Next came the little jar of water, whose cork she yanked out and put in her teeth (something he was beginning to realize was a habit - one he approved of) using that hand to put her fingers in the water and pull them out again, letting it run off of her skin and into the shell. As soon as she was satisfied with the amount of it she’d added, she stood up off the ground, still holding the vial in her hand and the cork in her mouth. With her free hand she gestured to Tamatoa to bring his face down to her level, which, tentatively he did, and she took some of the water again, this time letting it run down her hand, and pressing her wet palm to his face. He didn’t really question it, just sort of let it happen.

She released him, and went back down to finish the job. The last item there was her jar of salt, which she took and dumped a generous amount into the shell.

Gingerly, she packed up her belongings, blowing out the candle, closing the bottle and the jar, tightening the string on the bag of leaves and setting them in her bag.

Lastly, she pulled out an extra item, which seemed to be a little tin container, which she popped open and pulled out some clay that she used to fill the top of the shell, as a makeshift lid, he supposed. After putting that away too, she stood up off the ground, holding now just the filled shell, and her bag slung over her shoulder. She reached down to pick up a pointy rock and, before the clay dried, she carved a little image into it, which Tamatoa thought was sort of funny, but it was twice as funny when he realized it wasn’t some enigmatic magic symbol, but a simple little doodle of a crab with a circle in the center, over the shell. He stifled laughter, and she shook her head at him, trying to suppress her own smile. “It’s necessary, I swear!” She defended herself before moving on.

She gestured for Tamatoa to bring his head down again, and he gulped. This was probably it. But he had agreed, and he already felt sort of strange with the water on his face. It was warming up, and he really wasn’t sure how. It seemed like a good time to finally move things along.

She handed the shell to him to put back onto his shell, and he began to do it carelessly before Tally stopped him with a screech.

“Wait!” She waved her arms at him, and he froze, looking down at her, still holding the shell above his back.

“Visualize! You need to think about how small you want to become. Back to camp, remember? Forest...stealth!” She managed loudly, folding her hands together pleadingly to emphasize the importance of it; and he nodded for a moment, pausing for another, and finally placed the, now enchanted, shell back down on his back.

All at once, he began to understand what she had meant about it being not pleasant. Indeed, the spell was working, but he was completely stunned as he changed rapidly, disoriented and with a sort of weird, ethereal pain, it was just a blink, but he was shocked by exactly how he changed. He didn’t just shrink as he was, all of what he considered to be himself at once. As he did, his back became heavier, the decoration on his legs, chin and even teeth covered more and more surface area before they broke off, unable to hold onto the changing surfaces, and for some reason he simply hadn’t expected that. The barnacles on his teeth pinched his lips, catching them for a moment before they were ripped off, and with the weight on his back increasing, the balance he maintained with his amputated leg shifted and he found himself suddenly very unstable.

It was only a couple seconds of all of this before he suddenly found himself much, much smaller; and he wanted to be happy, because it was a pretty fun idea on its face, and a success was a success, but all he could think about was how much had fallen off of him in this process. Most of the treasures on his back somehow, thankfully, were still attached, however much they might also be shoved together and piled higher on his back; but just a little bit of movement caused many of them to come tumbling off. There was still decor on his limbs, and a few of what had previously seemed like small barnacles still held onto his chin, but the elegance of it all was basically gone, it was gaudy now that all the pieces were much bigger on him, and to be completely honest, he didn’t hate the look. It was quite a statement, at least. It made his collection look significantly more impressive. He only wished he wasn’t losing so much of it to the ground beneath him. It was a moment before he realized the treasures on his back were actually a little _too_ heavy, and the pain of the weight was forcing him down. Reluctantly, he tipped himself to the side to allow the hangers-on to fall to the sand as well, and let his body fall flat on the ground in exhaustion.

After a few minutes of heavy breathing, he finally opened his eye to see Tally’s face, for once, actually slightly above him. From here he could tell though that his body parts had not shrunk proportionately - thankfully, in retrospect. He wasn’t just a miniaturized version of himself, he was simply a smaller crab, a natural looking size, which was sort of comforting. His treasures hadn’t shrunk, thank Te Fiti. His head and legs also remained slightly larger than his shell and body had, like they had been back when he really was this small, and he would have liked to be able to say he felt as young as he looked, but he certainly didn’t. He was kind of miserable, weaker than he’d felt in a long time, and he simply lay on the sand, somehow feeling heavier than ever too.

“Congratulations, babe.” He croaked out weakly to the pirate girl looking at him with concern. “You win the award for…” He breathed, “Witchy pirate witch of…” She smiled at him, somewhere between sympathy and adoration, but he could barely register it. “Witch pirate girl of the year.” He waved his claw once in the air in congrats before dropping it next to his head and promptly falling asleep.

He was only asleep for a few minutes though, before an **_awful_ ** feeling forced him awake. He barely had time to stand up and register that apparently he had been out at least long enough for Tally to retrieve a burlap sack from the ship and thoughtfully picked up all of his fallen treasures before she had to stumble back quickly to avoid the great mess of vomit he hurled noisily onto the sand in front of him, gagging and choking on it as it left him, the texture of it ridiculously painful against his throat as it forced its way up and out even a second time, and he coughed with tears in his eyes from the sheer trauma of it before stepping back once and blinking away the tears, getting a look at what exactly had come out of him.

It had been a long, long time since he’d vomited. Thousands of years, probably. He was a monster, and a scavenger by nature. He’d been able to stomach everything he’d eaten for the past millennia, and he’d forgotten just how awful throwing up could really feel.

On the sand in front of him was just a blur of gore. Red and black bile with unmistakable human remains in large pieces, half a head, an entire arm, raggedly split bones and even some of the equipment and weapons the enemy pirates had equipped when he swallowed them. The fluid that coated it all was chunky and viscous, a watery substance running through it like veins through an organ and the sight of it was enough to force up a third round of vomit. Luckily, this time there wasn’t much actual substance to it, but the bile burned the places where the previous expulsions had damaged his throat, and as he spit out the last of what had come up this time around, he whimpered a little in self-pity and weakly turned to look at his clearly very, very dangerous, not-so-little, pirate girl.

“Why did I…” He gasped, “Agree to this? You…” He coughed, “You little rat!” He managed before a fourth, much more acidic, liquidy substance forced its way out of his throat, followed by a dry heave that almost threw him off his feet.

Before he could fall, Tally ducked to come up beneath him. She was still significantly smaller than him, enough that he wasn’t totally confident in her ability to provide any kind of stability to him, but she pushed up against his shell and she did an okay job of helping to steady him, filling in the space under his shell near his amputated leg so his claws didn’t have to struggle to help hold himself up. He let them fall, and his head too in exhaustion, breathing heavily and trying not to let the taste of the vomit start it all over again.

“Why did I agree to this, babe?” He whined pitifully. Despite feeling utterly betrayed by her, he couldn’t help but find some comfort with her against him.

“I forgot you ate those pirates.” She half-whispered apologetically, “You’re gonna have to chew your food a little more from here-on out.”

Tamatoa felt sure this was some kind of jibe as his expense, but the serious way she ended the sentence and the distracted look on her face told him otherwise. She had him walk away from the mess a ways, leading him toward the inlets beach just a little and having him sit by the surf there before standing up again herself. He was really too dizzy to think about it, when she approached him with a tin cup full of water, which he downed pretty quickly. It wasn’t particularly refreshing, since it was warm ocean water, and the salt scratched his damaged throat, but it did the trick and his mouth didn’t feel quite like a warzone in itself anymore.

When he was done, he barely noticed her shifting positions before she was sitting on the sand in front of him, focusing intently on wiping off his face with her own sleeve, apparently undeterred by the gore of her own species.

He wasn’t sure if he should feel insulted, since this was such a patronizing, mothering sort of act, but he didn’t protest, and just let her do it, her other hand holding his cheek, and he couldn’t help but find it somewhat comforting. He wasn’t sure if anyone had ever really treated him with this kind of care before. If he’d experienced it as a child, he certainly didn’t remember, and he just focused on slowing his own breathing as she wiped away the last of the refuse. As she brought her arm down, she accidentally scraped off one of the few barnacles left on his chin, and she sort of winced, as if it might have hurt him or something.

She eyed them on the ground for a moment before hooking her fingers on his top lip where they parted and pushed them back a little to look at his teeth briefly before letting them go and looking at him with confusion.

“I didn’t think the spell would clean your teeth.” She told him, baffled.

He couldn’t help but sort of chuckle for a moment before letting his face fall again.

“Oh come on, be real,” He groaned, “That’s exactly why you did all of this in the first place. You could have just asked, if it bothered you.” He ended it with a cough, and she smiled at him.

“Baby,” She told him, “You’re one of the first people I’ve met in a long time who even _has_ all his teeth. I thought they were alive, I guess. If they were they should have shrunk with your skin.”

“Of course they’re not alive.” He coughed a little again, clearing his throat, trying to make it sound like it was obvious, but his voice was still just too tired. “You haven’t gotten nipped yet when we kiss, have you? It’s just decoration, babe.”

“You put them on yourself?”

“Yeah, of course. I have a system, don’t you know. Stick them on, let them die, hollow out the little buggars then put gold dust and other shiny stuff inside the plates and voilà, permanent fashion statement, no adhesive required.”

She grinned at him, and ran a hand around his face once. “You are so clever.” She told him softly, and he half grinned before tentatively turning to rest his head on her shoulder, moving slowly first, to see if he could. His head was still larger than hers by a long shot, and obviously too heavy to be comfortable for her, but she’d certainly put him in this position in the first place, and he let his head settle against the joint, imperfect as it may have been.

With this, she guided him up, and he gave a little start.

“Let’s go into the ship.” She told him simply, and he blinked.

“Into it?”

“We might have to break some door frames, but you’ll fit, I’m sure. Isn’t this the reason you agreed to this? To make things like this easier? ...Possible?”

“Yes?” He replied with an incredulous sigh, making it pretty clear he couldn’t remember why he agreed to it at all, before nodding toward the ship, giving her permission to bring him along. “Lead the way, babe.”

Tally was musing different ways to get into the ship before Tamatoa exasperatedly revealed that he could climb, he just never needed to, and Tally was skeptical, but she let him follow her up the rope ladder anyway, sort of fascinatedly watching him climb, making him eye her with annoyance as he did.

“Is it really so surprising?” He grunted, still feeling ridiculously sick, but determined to prove the ease of the skill to Tally who was watching him from over the railing. “I’m a crab, not a turtle! Sheesh.”

He still allowed her to help him off the railing and onto the deck. Somehow on the even flooring, it was much easier to see just exactly how small he was now. Or maybe it was just because he wasn’t actively vomiting everywhere. Either way, it was pleasant to realize he was still pretty huge, which made sense in retrospect since Tally had told him to ‘choose’ his size, and he definitely didn’t want to be anything anyone could call ‘little’. Not that the change wasn’t dramatic, he must have been perhaps a fifth of the size he was prior, maybe a little more than that, and everything just seemed much, much bigger in a way he didn’t expect it to. Before the transformation, he expected that he’d just be seeing everything from an angle closer to the ground, but it felt more like everything around him had grown to accommodate him better, as much as fate would allow, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about it yet. He liked how big Tally seemed now, if only because she was so much easier to see. The texture of her skin, the stitches in her clothing, the little ways she moved. It was hard to focus much at the moment, but he was making it a point to remember to take advantage of this later.

She led him to her father’s quarters, which despite everything was kind of a thrill. He felt like he was sneaking into some place he didn’t belong, but to Tally, it was home, and she didn’t hesitate to duck in first and push furniture and rubbish out of the way to make some more room for him.

He just barely fit through the only double doors to the room, and Tally’s prediction that they’d have to break some doorframes was right as he created some pretty big gashes in the wood on either side of the entrance. In the cabin, he also had to duck quite a bit. Unfortunately, the ceiling was a little low, under ten feet even, and he felt a little like a walking crab pancake as he shuffled around, bumping into things, and Tally, with a steady hand, guided him to simply plop down on the bed there. His shell covered the mattress completely, but his body underneath wasn’t completely unbalanced, even if his legs were awkwardly splayed and he had to reach around and pull another piece of furniture to put his head on, as his tail against the headboard prevented him from letting it rest on the bed itself.

All in all it was a more novel experience than anything else, and he took his time getting adjusted, getting used to the feeling of it, trying to become less disoriented, less nauseous as was inevitably Tally’s intention. It was funny. He wasn’t sure if this was right. Some monsters had furniture, he certainly never did though. He wondered if she knew that, if she thought this was familiar to him, or didn’t care in the first place. Whatever she thought, Tamatoa guessed it probably wasn’t quite as comfortable as she would have hoped for him, and he really wasn’t sure why she’d brought him here in the first place until she dropped his bag of treasure at the foot of the bed, told him to wait, and came back with a whole cornucopia of supplies.

“Haven’t you done enough?” He joked a little, his head heavy, adjusting the cushiony ottoman beneath his head so he could let his whole head rest flat against it comfortably, bringing his arms around to relax on the edge of it.

“I’m just going to make something for you to help you feel better. No magic involved, okay?” She promised, as she took the supplies one by one and brought them to the other side of the room where there was a basin and small standing fire grate that she lit, and put a pot on top of to boil.

He left her to it, and began rummaging around in his sack, seeing what exactly he’d lost to it.

“Do I still have your soul jar?” He asked groggily, once he realized it wasn’t in the bag, trying to relay importance, but becoming much too comfortable where he lay compared to the effort it took to raise his head and speak.

She turned to him just a little as she tended to the pot, and pointed to her own back with a smile to coerce him to look at his own, which he did, and indeed the little jar was one of the remaining trinkets; or maybe it had fallen but Tally had put it back when she was picking up his treasures. Either way, it was there. The fact that it was larger now to him was kind of nice, it would be pretty easy to keep track of. With a sigh, he perked up again with an all new concern. “Do you still have my ring?”

With a soft giggle she held up her hand to show it to him, and he relaxed for the second time, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath as if the confirmation of both of those things was all he needed to make everything okay.

It didn’t take long for her to finish her little concoction, and she put out the flames under the grate before bringing the pot over with rags over her hands to set it on the floor in front of him, tucking those same rags underneath the pot to protect the wood floor, and subsequently sit down next to it, her side leaning directly against the ottoman he’d pulled up, and now she was essentially eye-to-eye with his resting head. At least, much moreso than she ever had been before.

He didn’t say anything, just looked at her waiting for her to get comfortable on the floor, tucking her skirt under her and casting off her dirty sweater before reaching for one of her father’s instead. When she’d gotten her arms through the sleeves and sighed with contentment, she finally turned to give him her full attention, her face close, and taking up more of his vision than ever, which was honestly _very_ nice. The most pleasant thing he’d seen all day.

It was pretty intimate, but Tamatoa’s insides were fighting him and he couldn’t really take any more than simple comfort in her presence. The impossible feeling of being both too hot and too cold associated with many an illness made him just want to not move at all, which Tally seemed to guess, as she didn’t seem like she was preparing to go anywhere anytime soon herself.

“Should I drink that?” He asked, his throat dry, letting his claw fall forward just a little over the edge of the ottoman to point to the steaming pot.

“I’d let it cool down a little first.” She sighed, and raised her hand to sort of rest between his eyes facing forward between the stalks before gently stroking it back down his neck and over his antennae, pressing them down against his skin. He almost objected, but the size, weight and warmth of her hand was ridiculously comforting, and he let his head sink with his heart, whimpering just a little into the fabric, admitting vulnerable appreciation.

She repeated the motion a few times, his eyes closed, just letting the feeling settle his nerves before she spoke again.

“I’m sorry.” She offered softly. He opened his eyes, but didn’t lift his head, turning his eyestalks by themselves to look at her face with a candid, tired gaze. He wanted to ask her what on earth she had expected was going to happen, rather than this horror; or excuse her kindly since she did technically warn him, or tell her it was probably going to be worth it, because he was still pretty confident it would be, even if he was feeling terrible at the moment; but instead he sort of smiled into the cushion his face rested on.

“I wanted to kiss you.” He admitted in a soft voice, like he was amusing himself, and she smiled with an eyebrow raised, her hand still on the back of his head, sort of petting him there in shorter, lighter strokes.

“What?”

“I…” He sighed, still side-eyeing her, “I wouldn’t have agreed to this if I didn’t think it was a good idea.” He breathed, “I was actually…” He slowed, and he watched her face turn away from amusement and to giving him her undivided attention. As much as he was sure he trusted Tally, despite this little fiasco, after this whole ordeal, he still wasn’t sure if he wanted to share some of his more personal thought processes with even himself. Well, he swallowed his pride in favor of being honest with her - which, so far, always felt good - and let his tone become casual, like he wasn’t admitting anything.

“I was scared.” He let her know, and even though he was exhausted, sick, and alone with Tally, he still felt the fear of shame run through his body at revealing such a thing.

“Scared?” She asked simply.

“When the other crew, those… _dorks,”_ she grinned at his word choice, “...showed up… Not that I couldn’t take them all on myself; but if they got lucky… One of those stupid, totally barbaric iron balls you guys love to shoot at each other… I mean, if that hit my shell the right way, just once… You couldn’t help me.”

She elongated her strokes to sort of soothe his nerves as he spoke, since it was obviously a little taxing to recall all of this with his stomach still screaming at him, even if his muscles were mostly relaxed now, but she was clearly appreciative to hear what he was saying; so he took a deep breath and continued.

“I couldn’t hide, I’m too big to hide. And your whole crew couldn’t protect me, you can’t move me if I can’t move myself. I don’t think there’s even enough of you to surround me, if you wanted to. Those freaks were all ready to take me down, Gulliver’s-Travels-style. Human technology is getting crazier all the time.” He sighed, then thought for a moment.

“I like who I am, Tally.” He insisted.

“I like who you are too.” She smiled at him.

“But the human world is… ugh. I don’t even know. Unpredictable, I guess.” He huffed “So I think this really will be worth it, at least, if I ever get any of my strength back.”

He sighed, letting his eyes look her up and down once hazily, “So don’t be sorry. I didn’t want this ‘just because’. I feel awful, but to be honest just being in these cramped captain’s quarters… Noone can see us from the outside. That’s pretty… I don’t know, good, I guess? Maybe I’m just a big coward now, if I’m really… _enjoying_ being _hidden._ Kinda goes against everything I stand for. But… whatever, man. I just don’t care anymore.” This was the best he could articulate at the moment, but he was pretty comfortable with the explanation and continued on.

“But when you were doing the ritual,” He admitted further, “I just kept thinking about how it was going to be really great to kiss you like this. Since our mouths are kind of closer in size and all. Doesn’t seem so appealing now, does it?” He smiled half-heartedly, and she smiled back.

“Maybe drink this first.” She gestured to the pot on the floor that was no longer steaming, and without further ado he took it in both of his claws and finally lifted his head off of the cushion to tilt it back and down it in just a few gulps.

He made sort of a face as he put it back down on the floor. “What was in that?” He whined.

“Oh my god,” She laughed, warm and genuine in what he was sure was the first time all day, “It’s just ginger, peppermint and cumin powder! You big baby.”

“You think my mouth is any less totally disgusting now?” He sighed, and she smiled softly.

“Let’s find out.” She insisted with a chuckle, and reached out her hand to pull his head close to hers, now with some actual effectiveness.

The kiss was very chaste, just their closed lips meeting, and his body was not cooperating with his wish to enjoy it, his whole face still a little numb and uneven in temperature, too much so to actually appreciate anything happening against it, but with some focus he did manage to make note of the fact that it definitely held the promise of a much more satisfying feeling, and when they pulled away Tally just smiled at him.

“It’s got potential.” She agreed, letting her forehead lean against his for just a moment, “But if you could try and get some rest first, maybe just enough until you can keep your head up for more than a few minutes before we start experimenting, I would really appreciate it.”

“Yeah,” He mumbled with a dry, tired chuckle. “I think I would too.”


	19. Bonded Jacky

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **WARNING** they screw again, because that's what they love to do, and that's why you're really here anyway tbh, admit it.

Angled across the bed, Tamatoa was much more comfortable. He cold fold his legs underneath him now, which he did, at least on the right, to make room for Tally to join him on the left corner. Not lying down, just sitting cross-legged as she did, shoes off, hand on the edge of his shell, just to make contact with him, he supposed.

“You know I’m never going to fall asleep with you just sitting there staring at me like that.” He informed her, and with a little smile, she obliged his vague request, lying down next to him on her back, turning her gaze to meet his, her hair sort of splayed out. She looked comfortable, and he was glad he said something.

“What about the pirates?” He asked, conversationally, now that she was right next to him.

“What about them?” She blinked, her eyes searching his face.

“Uhh we just got attacked by them?” He chuckled, “Or did you forget? If we stay here too long, isn’t Captain McGlasses Pants gonna start thinking you’ve been killed? Don’t you want to go back to the camp anyway, to defend it, at least? I mean, if you’ve changed your mind and just want to avoid the whole thing and spend time with me from now on, just wait out the whole fiasco in here, that’s fine with me, but…”

She chuckled softly. “If neither of us come back, dad’ll know we’re alive. We’ve been in spats before with the Reddies, I’m sure he’s not worried yet, especially since you’re with me.” She folded and unfolded her hands, and he watched her fingers move as she talked, “They’re not going to make a second push right away.” She explained, “I think they really thought we were going to let them take you.” She stopped moving her hands, and rested them on her stomach before turning to gaze at him again. “There’s not many more of them than there are of us, and they sacrificed their cannon fodder in the first wave. Everyone else is permanent crew, so they’re not gonna risk them without good reason.” She sighed and looked at the ceiling for a moment, thinking. “They’re probably going to send scouts out, since they know we know they’re here, they don’t have much to lose by mapping out the island, and they’re not going to want to get caught by us in the first place. If they do catch them, my father could take a single one with his hand tied behind his back. They’re fine.” She assured him, and Tamatoa didn’t speak for a moment, just lay there, taking her words in.

“You know a lot about war, I guess.” He noted, and she raised her eyebrows at him, her expression otherwise neutral.

“Battle, sure.” She shrugged, and turned her eyes back to the ceiling “I wouldn’t know how to keep track of entire troops, or supply a whole army or anything like that. Diplomatic relations… It’s all Greek to me. I think most people know how to fight though, right? I know women don’t usually get the kind of learning experience I’ve had, but even noblewomen take, like, fencing lessons, I think. Strategy is strategy anywhere you go. The universal language of violence, I guess.” She chuckled, and he joined her.

“That’s an interesting way to put it.” He commented, “But you’re wrong, I don’t fight like that. Monsters don’t fight like that. In Lalotai, it’s all about how strong you are, tough or clever. No complicated strategy necessary. We don’t play on teams like you, babe.”

“You,” She pointed a finger in his direction and grinned, “Are an animal.”

He smiled at this, then gave her a wink. “You bet I am, baby.”

After rambling on about strategy for a while, which Tamatoa was not super thrilled to have started her on, she ended up talking to him about life on the ship, which was dreadfully, painfully boring. Maybe this was the intended effect, to bore him, but he really didn’t care enough to speculate, because whether it was the goal or not, pretty soon he was fast asleep.

When he woke up, it was night time, and it took him a moment to remember where he was. It was strange being inside a human-built room like this, all the sounds outside muffled, the light of the moon barely finding its way over the top of the rocks surrounding the inlet and through the line of windows looking out the back of the ship.

Besides just realizing where he was, the first thing he noticed was that his bioluminescence wasn’t really working the way it usually did. Tally had said she had to take some of his ‘magic’ to do it, but he’d never not been a monster, inherently magical, and he never thought about what he’d look like without it. He was dimmer in general, just a little. The stripes of his antennae didn’t roll, but sat still. His gold, in the dark, didn’t glow; instead his shell’s blue glow was just barely peeking out between the items on his back, the decor on his legs not glowing at all, just obscuring the stripes there. Overall not all that much different, but definitely playing by a different set of rules.

The second thing he noticed was that Tally was asleep next to him, the same place she was last he was awake, but now she was dressed down a bit, her sweater and stockings gone, and sort of curled up in the sheets, her hair splayed around her head and her breathing soft.

Between his own bioluminescence and the moonlight, and the fact that it was so easy to see her up close now, she was prettier than he’d ever seen her, and when she sighed, her face turning a bit in the blankets, his heart skipped a beat.

He could almost count her eyelashes, and smiled at how her dark eye paint was rubbed off a bit, the evidence on the blanket by her head. What was probably the most captivating thing was that he could see she had freckles. Not a lot of freckles, just a few, under her eyes on top of her cheeks. They were faint and delicate and reminded him of sparkling sand and he was suddenly very aware of how much better he felt than he had when he’d gone to sleep.

He turned all the way around on the bed, stepping over Tally, but also not really caring that he would wake her up, because as soon as she registered the night, she was picked up and turned herself, set promptly down almost all the way around, angled the opposite way they’d fallen asleep.

 

* * *

 

Tally was pretty disoriented for a moment, sleeping in her father’s room alone wasn’t all that unusual, but neither or father nor any of the crew would dare to actually come and try to pick her up when she did, so when she found herself lifted and repositioned on the bed, it was totally dreamlike until she remembered Tamatoa, in all his much smaller glory, was the one doing it, and she relaxed.

He didn’t turn her to actually put her head on the pillow, just near it, angled more so he could see her face using the moonlight coming through the window, and it was charming to her how, of course, he wasn’t a human, the traditional choice was not his first, he didn’t care about pillows or how beds were built to be used, he just made himself comfortable, and she had no objections.

In the dark, he looked down at her wordlessly, not smiling, but his eyes tight in a kind of admiration that made her heart race. They said nothing at all before he brought his head down to put his mouth on hers, putting his lips between hers like trying to put together a puzzle.

It wasn’t like kissing a human just because he was smaller, his mouth still dwarfed hers, his face naturally much wider and flatter than hers, but the fact that they were even remotely in the same realm of being able to fit together was more than enough, and if they had planned to say anything to each other after the first kiss, they instantly forgot.

The first test was all it took, after he lifted his face he instantly dropped it again, this time to push her mouth open with his own, and he didn’t lift it again to continue, just pressing his against hers repeatedly. To Tally, besides it being thrilling because it was Tamatoa, it was also sort of funny. She hadn’t expected him to really learn how to kiss from their previous, strange version of it, but she hadn’t expected this either. He was sort of sloppy, repeating the same motions a few too many times in a row, but unlike a human he didn’t seem to care that the in-betweens were strange. Just because he was smaller didn’t mean he suddenly took on any human qualities, and to Tally that was a relief, she wouldn’t want him to think that was why she was happy to move forward with this, and she was glad he wasn’t trying to mimic human behavior. He didn’t kiss her slowly or with calculation, rather he chased what felt good, not taking time to build up to putting his tongue in her mouth, hooking her upper jaw with it, surrounding the whole area, teeth and all with his mouth, doing the same below, but then pulling back slowly to catch her bottom lip alone and just hold it in between his for a moment. He seemed to start losing track of what he wanted to do versus what he just let his mouth do, and pretty soon he was just twisting his head every which way to catch her mouth at different angles, each trying to take her in as much as possible, and the way he began moaning into her mouth with his own movements had her filled with warmth in no time at all. It was intoxicating, and she assured herself she would take the initiative herself next, but for now she was more than content to let him do what felt right to him. It was so automatic for him, and she wasn’t sure if he could feel her heart racing below him at how _wanted_ he was making her feel. Between gasps, her breath hitched with emotion and it just seemed to spur him on, letting his body rest more of its weight on top of hers, just a little, to press himself against her too.

She also couldn’t help but notice he didn’t keep his eyes closed the whole time, he let them flicker, and even press themselves into her hair by her ear while he did as he pleased with his mouth. He brought up a claw to the side of her head, just lying it next to her temple as if she was planning on moving it anytime soon, and he tilted his head a little to kiss her deeply, trying to close all the gaps he could. After his frantic movements were out of the way, he moved a little slower, putting his tongue out just a little to dip it between her teeth and the inside of her bottom lip, and run it along the wet skin there; gently catching the edges of her mouth and pecking at her bottom and top lips individually, and it was pretty easy to figure out he was trying to imitate what she’d done to him previously, and she smiled against him, rewarding him with her own whimpers, which really just excited him enough that he seemed to forget about recreating what she had done and he quickly slipped back into putting his mouth against her without intention at all, his tongue reaching for every part of the inside of her mouth. When he went a little too far, pressing the tip of his tongue against her soft palate she gagged and coughed for a moment, only to open her eyes and giggle at his concerned expression before reaching up to pull his face back down to hers, taking her own initiative this time, and kissing him softly, sweetly, and let her head tilt a little so he could turn his own head and drink her in again, this time slowly, but no less passionate, low moans and whimpers muffled by their kissing, her cheek pressing against the claw by his head, her fingers gently stroking the back of his neck and dancing up his antennae.

He let her do it for a bit, shivering when her touch became more delicate, and trying to keep his noises under control before her touching his antennae became too much, and he broke the kiss finally with a gasp.

She smiled up at him, and continued to run them both through the fingers of her hand, just admiring his face for a moment before he dipped his head down again, this time to kiss her neck, and she gasped right back. He spent a little time there, his tongue and teeth taking turns leaving temporary impressions on her skin, and both her arms brought themselves up to wrap around his neck as best they could. Now free, his antennae roamed her hair, dragging themselves gently across her scalp and she shivered with a smile he could just barely feel against the side of his face.

Despite the amount of time they’d been more than content to just kiss, all at once with her caressing his antennae and him covering her throat with kisses they both became pretty impatient pretty quickly, and Tally couldn’t pretend she wasn’t fascinated by how, with Tamatoa against her, she could feel his sex organ unfold and free itself on its own after the past few minutes of that part of his body slowly shifting with arousal.

It was interesting, how quickly they’d silently agreed that this was the first thing they should be doing with Tamatoa’s new size. It was a conversation she wanted to have pretty quickly after he was feeling better, but apparently he’d been pretty much on board from the start to get more out of this than just a better kiss, because it seemed to go unspoken that this was important to both of them as they maneuvered around each other without any significant apprehension.

She had only a little time to appreciate the novelty of it all though before he was tugging her clothes off hungrily, breathing raggedly and watching her body in the dark as he revealed it to himself. She wasn’t sure if he looked more eager than she’d ever seen him because they were more similar in size, or if it was simply because she could actually _see_ his face completely this time, and didn’t have to look back and forth between his expressions and their coupling.

Whatever the reason, it was true what she had told him before - it drove her wild to see his gaze darting all over her with unhinged excitement. Before he fully got anything off her though he dropped his task with the impulse to put his mouth on her body, not kissing it as much as just pressing his mouth to every inch he could, up her stomach, between her breasts, closing his teeth around her shoulder and kissing down her arm only to circle back around to lick the outline of her ribs, bringing his tongue up even higher to press thoughtlessly against her nipple, the rest of his mouth coming down around her breast itself, and she let herself shudder and sigh happily at the sensation. Her reaction this time got his attention, and he let his gaze move to her face for just a moment, slowing his motions in analysis before sucking a little, this time, and she sort of just giggled, her face quickly flushing. Now he grinned against her flesh, his own face darkening, and repeated the process a few times on the other side before his tongue, now drenched in a whole new coat of saliva ran down her stomach, and didn’t stop until his face was between her legs; which had him more than halfway off the side of the bed at this point, but he grabbed her hips with his claws and pulled them closer to him, putting her legs up on either side of his head and scooted forward to make up some distance, and that was enough for him.

Interestingly he didn’t seem intent on pleasuring her as much as pleasuring himself with the act, which Tally found ridiculously sexy in itself. He let his eyes close and moaned low and loud as he began haphazardly licking her. Not in an attempt to make her squirm like he had before, instead he seemed to ignore the individual parts of the anatomy there, and pushed his tongue into every crevice he could reach, regardless of where it was, just tasting her, groaning happily, his expression almost one of relief, and she thought he was sort of kidding before when he’d told her she ‘tasted good’, but he was aggressive and greedy doing it. She let the sensation of his mouth and the fervor of his adoring attention carry her just a little too close to the edge.

Luckily, she didn’t have to actually open her mouth and ask him to stop, subsequently ending their little game of silence. It didn’t take long for him to release her, breathing heavily before yanking off her clothes where they were still hooked on her wrists and ankles with a frantic lack of patience and crawling all the way on top of her again, pushing her legs open as he did so until his whole weight was on the bed again, and over her, and he didn’t waste time letting now, both of his gonopods push into her entrance without even a tease.

She gasped, and sort of tried to look down to see what was happening, but he covered her completely, and she had no complaints, so she decided to lie back and trust him. Instead, she gazed at his face as she felt them push further and further into her, his face contorting in that beautiful agony again, and she was sure he didn’t miss the increase in arousal her body allowed while she watched him, but he didn’t acknowledge it, just continued until he was buried as far as he could be.

Luckily, there was definitely room for them both now, and maybe even more significantly, their length. She was sure they were still a little too long to fit, simply because their bodies just weren’t made for each other, but it was unmistakably in much further and deeper for him than when he was larger, and before he did anything else, he just lay on top of her, shivering and biting his lip, his eyes closed, apparently focusing on the feeling and just barely failing to hold back a grateful moan that caused him to drop his head back down on her, and just press his forehead into the crook of her neck this time.

For just another moment, he trembled quietly on top of her, but to her surprise, rather than propping himself up again to start moving, he just barely lifted his head to meet her eyes, still essentially laying her, and began thrusting into her in the position he was in.

She gasped at the first movement, and in his gaze his eyes shined. Though maybe it was literal, since they were bright and purple in the dark. She got her confirmation when he added a second thrust and his eyes pulsed brighter for just a moment before he squeezed them shut. He centered himself for just a moment before bringing his claws up, not to fully hold himself up, just enough to create space to move as he found a rhythm.

For a little while it was just that, strangled gasps in the dark, Tally whimpering as she finally got a bit of a look at what was actually happening down there, increasingly turned on by seeing so much of it disappear into her this time around. Soon though, she pushed him to curl his body a little, his shell’s decor scraping the ceiling of the cabin so she could kiss him as they continued.

At first he just grunted, trying to reach her mouth at all, and their lips met in a pretty unsatisfying little kiss. After just a moment though he found a bend that was comfortable to him, and it was all too natural for him to fall back down and meet her mouth in a full kiss. Counterproductively, he paused for a moment in thrusting, and just shared a breathy kiss with her, but pretty quickly he realized her intent, and began pushing again, letting her kiss him as he did, a little too distracted, a little too frantic to actually make the moves. He was more than happy to let her mouth reach up and take his though, and to Tally’s delight the more she kissed him the more he seemed to find the pleasure, or at least the fun, of doing both at the same time. Pressing their mouths together gave them more freedom with their volume, moaning and whining into each others mouths for a while before it really did become too distracting, and Tally wouldn’t dream of blaming him for forcibly breaking the kiss to tuck his head in her neck again and focus on moving above her, quickly and steadily, grunting and whining against her skin as he did. She, wrapping her arms around his neck again to hold him close and encourage him, gasping and moaning softly into the air.

As they naturally began to race for the end, he released his head from its rest and let Tally see his face. Tally couldn’t help but hiccup a little in between gasps, realizing that he was probably making this choice because he finally took to heart her insistence that - out of all his beauty - it was his face she really wanted to see. Despite the conscious choice, he gazed down at her with vulnerability for only a moment before closing his eyes and gritting his teeth, deciding, perhaps shyly, not to watch her watch him before letting himself start gasping noisily with his thrusts, grunting through his teeth and letting moans out where he couldn’t hold them in.

His gasping became louder and louder, and the sensation of his body along with the sweet intimacy he was giving her in full force had her following right behind when his orgasm hit him; a strangled cry erupting from him just once before he was huffing and whimpering in succession frantically, grasping at every nuance of his release.

Tally was much too distracted by his reaction and the physical pleasure to hear herself, but Tamatoa’s expression when his finally began to end and hers hit its tipping point told her whatever noise she was making was highly satisfying, because despite his finish he kept moving inside her with intent, his face looking down at her with bright eyes, a smile filled with affection plastered on his face as she finished around him, trembling and grasping at his arms, his shell, wherever she could find purchase to brace herself before she was freed from it, and relaxed completely beneath him; only mildly aware - and appreciative - of how much less there was to clean up this time.

He let himself relax too, which sort of knocked the wind out from under her and made the bed frame creak dangerously, but more than anything it just made her smile, and she looked up at him as he got comfortable again, looking down between them to remove himself from inside her before shuffling a little to the side so he wasn’t totally crushing her, and despite not caring much for the existence of the pillows before, he seemed to absentmindedly grab one and stick it under his head for him to rest on, maybe just so he could turn his head and look at her beside him with ease.

He smiled at her for a moment before reaching up slowly to push her hair out of her face with the tips of his pincers. He let his arm rest across her body, and just gazed at her before stifling a little giggle.

She smiled too, but raised an eyebrow at him.

“What?” She asked softly, the first word spoken since they’d woken up.

“I thought you couldn’t make me feel any more like a teenager.” He admitted, equally quiet, his grin remaining, “But I think we just had sex in your daddy’s bed.”

 _“Augh.”_ She groaned with only half exasperation, mostly amusement, and looked at the ceiling, letting out a laugh before offering with a light heart: “I won’t tell if you don’t.”


	20. As The Crow Flies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> they walk through the forest.  
> this chapter is probably weird as it kinda switches between tally and tama's perspectives, but i don't think it's distracting or anything, just different.

In the next few dark hours of the morning, Tamatoa just waited for Tally to gather more of her things. Some from in the Captain’s room, some from elsewhere on the ship, but Tamatoa didn’t really care about getting a tour, so he left her to it, weaving in and out of sleep throughout.

When morning light was no longer ignorable, he finally started complaining to her, pacing back and forth on the deck.

He’d been happy to stay there overnight apparently, but now he was restless, and commenting disapprovingly on every oppressive feature of the ship, especially the Captain’s room, which he decided was suffocating for a no-longer-ill crab, and the boat’s deck too narrow for anyone not to feel trapped. He’d changed just so he _wouldn’t_ feel stuck, not so he could make life more challenging for himself, and what were they doing still here? Didn’t she already change the bedding to save her father the injustice of finding their evidence? What more could she do in such a boring place?

Tally sort of just chuckled as she took her time, as if he wasn’t preaching to the choir. Soon after one last check, she came out of the Captain’s cabin again with two bags, hers, now well-supplied with magic items, Tamatoa supposed; and his own, the burlap sack she’d put his things in when they fell off of him yesterday. His bag naturally quite a bit heavier, almost dragging on the wood as she lugged it out, but she was making the arrangement work, and her face was bright when she approached him.

She looked for all intents and purposes totally content and well-prepared for adventure.

She also had something flat and brown in her hand, and a bottle of rum big enough that it made Tamatoa do a double take.

“Breakfast..?” He asked cautiously, sort of chuckling, and with the brown whatever-it-was in her mouth, she nodded before tearing off a bite and downing it with the rum.

“Want some?” She offered, revealing she had a few more slabs of it in her bag.

He scrunched his face up. “What is it?”

“Salted pork.” She shrugged like it was obvious, and the revelation just made him turn his face away from it even more.

“No thanks.” He insisted, making his distaste for it as clear as possible.

“You’ve gotta eat something.” She told him as, to Tamatoa’s relief, they finally started exiting the ship; she let Tamatoa climb down first before following, and landing in the shallow water beside him. “Do you still not feel well? Are you not hungry?” She asked, making her way to the dry sand on the beach away from the shore, but turned to walk backwards when she realized he wasn’t following her, instead his eyes darting around in the water.

“Oh, I _am.”_ He let her know pointedly from the water, not taking his eyes off of it as he spoke, and Tally seemed to sort of blush a little at the way he said it. Seeing her attracted to him was attractive in itself, but he barely let himself even notice before finding the first chance he had to shove his claw in the water and stab a fish, bringing it up and shoving it into his mouth without thought.

He turned to Tally pridefully, smiling with his mouth full, and to his surprise she had her eyes wide. When his gaze met hers, she rapidly pointed to her own mouth before making a little twirling motion with her hand, reminding him to chew.

It was a little insulting, especially since he had expected she’d be impressed by his fishing ability above all, but with just a little bit of reluctance, he did chew the fish a few times more than he thought was really necessary before opening his mouth and pointing to its raw, mushy, bone-filled contents to show Tally mockingly, as if she were his official caretaker, and she’d asked for the gruesome sight; but as usual Tally wasn’t phased, she just laughed before giving him her own patronizing little round-of-applause, and finally he swallowed it. Petulantly sticking his tongue out at her after it was down before following her onto the beach and away from the ship.

He didn’t take his eyes off the ground though, and as he neared her, he began diligently scraping through the sand, digging quick, deep holes one after the other, and Tally just watched him, eyebrows raised, and decided to take a seat on the beach and observe. She had no idea what he was doing, and sighed, put her head in her hand, resting her elbow on her knee, chalking it up to the trials and tribulations of dating outside your own species. In between he took a moment to approach the bile that was still on the sand from yesterday, and eye it for a moment before kicking a bunch of sand on top of it, effectively burying it, and she had no idea why he cared to cover it, but it was sort of cute. She was charmed by how he didn’t offer any explanation, or even look at her, just acting on instinct, and she just tried not to let herself giggle. Pretty soon he went back to digging around seemingly aimlessly, and after a few minutes she was curious.

“What the hell are you doing, Goldie?” She asked, and he stopped abruptly to turn to her.

“I’m looking for anything you might have missed.”

“Me?”

“When all that treasure fell off of me, some of it might have gotten buried in the sand or something. I’m not losing any more of it, even if I can’t carry it.”

“More of it?” He froze, and blinked at her.

“I’ll… tell you later.” He huffed, “I can’t find anything though. You really picked it clean, didn’t you?” He seemed impressed, and Tally grinned, leaning forward on both her hands with smug pride. “You could be a crab.”

“I’m a pirate.” She reminded him, “I don’t know if I should be insulted you’d think I’d leave a trace.”

He shook his head with lighthearted disbelief as he gave up his search and approached her instead.

“What do you want to do with them?” She asked, pulling the heavy bag around to sit on the sand in front of her, and leaned back for him to take a look at them again for himself; which he did.

He fished through the sack contemplatively, not making any judgements about the contents, just letting the shimmer of it remind him of how important it all really was to him.

However, he wasn’t sure how to answer her question. He looked up from the bag and at her face with a frown.

“Well I _want_ to wear it.” He insisted with a mournful sigh.

“Aw,” Her voice was mocking, and he looked up in shock to find her grinning, “The struggles of being too wealthy.” She continued, _“I don’t have enough room for all my loot! Woe is me!”_ She laughed, but her face fell when she realized he wasn’t laughing. In fact, he didn’t look amused at all. She leaned forward on her knees again, adopting his seriousness, and cleared her throat to reset her attitude.

“What… what would you have done in Lalotai, if you couldn’t fit something on your back?”

“I’d put it on my head.” He finally smiled at her with a wink, and she was visibly relieved, letting herself smile too with a sigh.

“I’m serious.”

“Me too.” He paused, looking at his precious treasures again longingly, “Obviously, normally I’d bring it back to my cave.”

Tally mused for a moment, “I don’t remember there being much in there you weren’t wearing.” She noted, and his face fell again, which made her eyes go wide, not sure what she had said wrong.

“Yeah.” He agreed quietly, sadly, and she didn’t push it. His face changed to one of determination and he met her gaze again with a challenging gleam in his eye. “But there was enough. It’s still my cave, still my treasure.” He insisted with a growl, and whatever his reason was for being upset just now, as a pirate, this was a line of thinking she could understand.

They were quiet for a moment, Tally just watching him look sadly at his things, unable to help feeling a little pain herself for him.

“Maybe we could…” She began tentatively, and he perked up quickly, “...Even it out?”

He looked at her, still lost, as she stood up and began walking in a sloppy circuit around Tamatoa, examining him a little, as if she wasn’t pretty familiar with his body by now.

“Babe?” Was all he asked to encourage her to explain.

“Was it really too heavy, or was it just too heavy for your back?”

He blinked. “I don’t know. I mean, I could have been a little weak from the whole transformation thing, being sick and all, but… I don’t want to get my hopes up.”

“Well, we might as well try, right?” She asked, walking back over to fish around in his bag.

They took turns bringing out different items, trying to place them on his back, and if they were being honest, it was kind of fun, like doing a little art project together or something. Uncovered parts of his legs were utilized, he replaced the lost decor on his chin and teeth with some appropriately smaller pieces of treasure, and it was nice, he had been right - now that he was feeling better he was sure he could carry it all again easy, but he sighed after just a little while, and stopped her.

“I think this is good.”

“But there’s still so much more.” She offered, holding the bag open for him to see.

“Yeah, but when I get back to normal, I’m just gonna have to do this all over again right? I feel like myself again.” He insisted, stepping back to give Tally a turnaround, showing that he was indeed very well-covered, intent in the arrangement had him looking pretty elegant again, if Tally did say so herself. Quite a lot more of him was covered than when he was his natural size, but the arrangement was definitely artistic enough. He seemed to think so too, and she smiled as he finished his little series of poses; happy to see him happy. “Anything more would be overkill, don’t you think?”

“Yeah, sure.” She laughed, and he came forward again to take the bag from her and hold it lovingly in his claws. He looked down at it admiringly, even though the contents of it were hidden by the burlap. When it was out of her hands, she pulled her own bag around to take out a compass and actually start into the forest to make it back to the pirate camp, and Tamatoa followed simply, still sort of lost in thought, examining the bag in his claws, letting his antennae do the orienteering. He seemed even more interested in it than the way the green in the trees and the light coming through the leaves, hitting his back in a flurry of random beams, created lovely, dancing light on the brush around them.

“Was that fish enough?” She asked genuinely, about the quantity of his breakfast earlier, letting her eyes look him over, trying to judge what kind of metabolism he was working with now. He was smaller, but still bigger than any earthly man or beast she’d ever met, and even Alvaro in all his skinniness could eat at least six eggs a morning. Tamatoa shrugged at her.

“I doubt it,” He told her, “But I’d rather not risk filling myself to bursting again. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

With a little grin, she reached into her bag with her other hand and pulled out some of that meat again, holding it up under his face.

“I still have that pork, if you want.” She teased, and he made an all-too-dramatic sound of disgust. At that, she laughed, and put the remaining ‘food’ back into her bag.

After a few moments of silence, Tamatoa spoke up again, apparently incapable of resisting the urge to continue talking about his collection of shiny things, which was pretty understandable.

“Of course all of my treasure is worthy of contributing to my blinding brilliance,” He continued casually as they walked, “Just thinking that I should wait and give them the care of arrangement they deserve, rather than trying to pile all of them on top of one another. They deserve that.”

He spoke about his treasures like they were his children, and as much as Tally herself loved treasure, she could recognize obsession when she saw it. She wasn’t about to chastise him for it, obviously she had entered his life long after the point of no return, and hell, at least it was a defect she was familiar with. Tamatoa was a lot more cogent than many she’d met with a similar outlook on material possessions. It was actually impressive that someone with this much dedication to collecting had also proven himself to be a wonderful lover, though she might have been a bit biased, those two things didn’t always go hand-in-hand, or claw-in-claw. And of course, it wasn’t necessarily only a flaw, what was a good treasure hunter without obsession? But Tally knew very well that it could be dangerous too.

 _“You_ deserve that, you mean.” She corrected him, with a point of her finger, and he looked at her blankly for a moment.

“Well, of course. This is the accumulated representation of thousands of years of dedication!”

“What’s the goal?” She took a chance with asking. Pirates rarely wanted to be asked what they planned to do with their loot - and for treasure-obsessed pirates who had no plans at all, the question could trigger anger. But she really didn’t know where Tamatoa stood on the scale of what wealth really meant to him. She was curious. “To be the most beautiful, is that it?”

He looked at her with an expression she couldn’t place, his eyes wide, as if the question was totally unexpected. They walked in silence for a moment, and even after thinking for a moment, he took a deep breath before answering.

“Well, I started doing it because I wanted to be…” He smiled at his own memory, and spread his arms out, closing his eyes, as if in front of an adoring audience, “Powerful.”

A surprisingly understandable answer. “That’s what it always comes down to doesn’t it?” She chuckled. “Power to do what?”

“Whatever I want.” He told her, sort of annoyed, as if it was obvious and she was being unreasonable in making him explain such a simple concept; but she didn’t respond, just looked at him innocently, waiting for more; and he looked ahead at their path, breaking her eye contact before continuing on. “To be left alone, mostly. I was feared by everyone!” He explained, “Maybe you don’t understand the laws of nature, babe. If you spend all your time on a boat… Not everything wants to be shiny.”

“I’m surprised to hear you say that.”

“Well,” He rolled his eyes dramatically, “Everything _wants_ to be shiny, of course; but not everything can afford to. The brighter you are, the more of a target you are, understand?”

She nodded slowly.

“Unless you’re powerful enough noone would dare. That’s **me** , babe. And if anything is stupid enough to come after me anyway, well... I’ve got to get my groceries somehow.” He chuckled darkly. “It was pretty great. I could take whatever I wanted, nobody could stop me, and no one could deny my success. Taking trophies in the form of decoration, to show everyone my strength and my excellent sense of taste, and to rub it in all their faces? Can’t think of any better way to spend my time. Anyway, it’s also just nice to have pretty things. That’s not so hard to understand, is it?”

She smiled in agreement, but dropped it and took a second for herself to think.

“Before you came up to the human world, right?” She asked, her tone kind of defeated, and he looked at her, confused. “If you hadn’t come up to see me, you’d still be around to defend your cave right? And just… eat fish and sleep as much as you want?” She chuckled.

“No... No!” He insisted, and she straightened up.

“No?”

“I’m not talking about before I met _you,_ you’ve been nothing but good for me, baby.” He paused, “Other than the whole ‘getting me into a war’ thing… I guess whether or not you’re good for me remains to be seen.” He winked, and she gave him a half smile in affection. _“Before_ before I met you I had… more treasure.” He turned away from her, and tried to say this matter-of-factly.

“Does this have to do with you saying you didn’t want to lose ‘more, treasure?” She asked with air quotes, and he just sort of sighed in confirmation. To his surprise she gave a soft little laugh. “I don’t know, Goldie.” She pointed at his back as they walked, “That right there is a lot of loot. I’d never seen so much in one place before I saw you in your cave.”

She hoped this would cheer him up a little, but his face didn’t flinch. He looked as serious as ever.

“Well if you had come a few years earlier, the view would have been even more impressive... A _lot_ more impressive.” He told her solemnly.

“What happened?” She asked.

“It was a _coup d'état!_ That’s what happened!” He snapped, and it was sort of a relief; talkative, dramatic Tamatoa was her favorite Tamatoa, regardless of attitude. “Maui and Moana showed up out of absolutely nowhere and, well… Maui and I were still nothing more than enemies, you see.” He explained, “I ended up on my back, alone.”

She winced, “Ouch.”

He smirked down at her, but it didn’t come across quite as playful as he’d intended. “Oh come on, babe. That’s a party for you.”

She shoved him a little with her arm, though she didn’t succeed in even interrupting his stride, it made her feel a little better.

“It seemed like everyone in Lalotai came to rob me then. I was there for a long time. I half starved.” He couldn’t help but wallow a little in self pity, even after all this time, “And I couldn’t do a thing.” He breathed out defeatedly through the gap in his teeth, letting a little whistle escape. “I don’t know why they didn’t just kill me. They definitely could have. Maybe they wanted me to be humiliated.” He paused, “I mean, of course they wanted me to be humiliated, but I would have thought they’d _rather_ have me dead. It’s almost insulting.” It was _definitely_ insulting, but he didn’t really want to go quite so far down this road if he could help it, just give Tally what he considered to be the facts.

Tally took just a second of silence for her eyes to widen and her mouth to pop open before gesturing to his treasure as a whole, swiping her arm up and back to illustrate.

“This is what was _left?!”_ She choked, “Is that what you’re saying? This is only a fraction, only what they deemed worthy **_not_ ** to take?”

"No." He continued grumpily, "Well yes, but no. They took pretty much _everything._ Most of this I had to get back... or get new." He sighed, "Some of the weaker monsters who took a lot from me were pretty easy to get my stuff back from, and I've been working my tail off to replaced important stuff, but most of it is... Just gone, I guess. I hate to tell you this, babe, but you’re hanging out with the shadow of what I was, not more than a clawful of years ago.” He smiled at her, mournfully.

There was a little silence while Tally considered this.

“You know something?” She asked, and he looked at her cautiously, not sure if he actually wanted to know something. She headed on anyway, walking around in front of him to stop him walking, and talking pointedly at him, hands on her hips. “I’m feeling sorry for you, but you are still wealthier, stronger, and more powerful than I will ever be. Even at this size. Even in the human world! From my understanding, you wouldn’t even have given me a chance before your little tragedy.”

He blinked. “Who told you that?”

“You made it pretty clear, when you were talking about human ‘investments’, and how they weren’t worth it.” She folded her arms and shrugged, “Maui also let some stuff slip.”

Tamatoa growled exasperatedly, looking off to the side and imagining the choice words he’d have for Maui the next time he saw him.

“So not only are you still all those things,” She continued, “I also wouldn’t even have you. I shouldn’t feel sorry for you in the least.”

He stared at her, almost hurt for a moment, until he processed her wording, and a smirk appeared on his face. He stepped toward her.

“You _shouldn’t?”_ He teased, dipping his head down closer to hers to look her in the eye, and her expression changed quickly to one of embarrassment and defeat, and she put her hands over her face with a groan.

“No, I shouldn’t!” She insisted.

“But you do~” Tally felt large claws grab her wrists and pull her hands from her face, revealing a smug, grinning coconut crab. “Isn’t that right?”

She just sighed, and gave him a sort of fed up look, daring him to continue to waste her time. He didn’t let it get to him, not at all, and his grin widened.

“And you just _can’t help it.”_ He continued on, like it was a narrative, stepping even closer to her until she was covered in his shadow, stuck on his grin. “Because you are hopelessly, desperately, _madly_ in love with me; _de tout ton coeur, ma fille dévouée~”_ He giggled shamelessly.

“Ughhhh.” She groaned, but he just laughed and moved in to kiss her, and, as he predicted, she couldn’t help but reciprocate, letting his arm wrap around her to pull her close, and despite her annoyed demeanor a moment ago, she sighed against his mouth, and lost herself in it for just a moment with him.

Pretty soon they parted though, not wanting any critters to run off with their bags while their attention was occupied.

“You’re insufferable.” Tally insisted, wagging a finger at him as she re-adjusting her bag to continue down their path and Tamatoa laughed.

“Don’t worry babe, I’ll feel sorry for you when you don’t deserve it too.”

“Is that so?” She giggled.

“Yeah, like, right now, for example.”

“What do you mean?”

 _“You_ hauled me out here and made me smaller and weaker and I _still_ can’t help but think how much easier this would be if you would just get on my back. You know I’ll get us there in half the time, even like this. Human legs are kind of pathetic. ...No offense, babe.”

She looked at him incredulously, and gestured to the smaller surface area of his shell, and the higher pile, creating a much more treacherous-looking shape, “I don’t think there’s any room for me up there anymore, big guy.”

“Don’t be silly.” He waved his claw, and, with only a slightly larger dose of effort than usual, he picked her up with his claws and plopped her on his back, earning himself a “Hey!” Before he started making his way, indeed, twice as fast, towards the camp.

Tally steadied herself, and it wasn’t quite the stability of an entire ship like she’d experienced it when Tamatoa was his natural size, but it wasn’t nearly as worrisome as she was expecting. He didn’t seem to have any trouble carrying her with his treasure, despite how weak he seemed yesterday. Apparently he wasn’t lying about getting his strength back.

He was also ridiculously fast which was almost creepy, though Tally didn’t exactly express that out loud. From below the fact that he was fast was just part of what made him so monstrous and intimidating. From above, however, watching him meander through the forest, climbing effortlessly over downed trees and bushes, rocks and uneven ground, she couldn’t help but see it as spiderlike, which was monstrous in a whole different kind of way.

“Isn’t your crew going to be a little upset that I’m smaller now?” He asked absentmindedly, not actually turning to her, just continuing to watch where he was going. “Everyone was pretty excited about the idea of me doing some serious damage. Or at least, scaring your enemies away.”

“I don’t know.” She admitted, “Though obviously the ‘scaring away’ point is kind of moot. Redburn wasn’t scared of you at all. Or at least, he was willing to risk a lot of men to keep you occupied. I wouldn’t have suggested this if I didn’t think it was the best course of action. If he wants you as a trophy more than he fears you, shock and awe isn’t the best choice. I guess we underestimated his crew’s dedication to his orders, but we do call them ‘Reddies’ for a reason.” She mused, and despite the potential for the details to evolve into something very stale, Tamatoa had to admit that her talking about all this stuff so casually was pretty attractive. Not in a ‘must have her now’ kind of way, just in a… respectful kind of way. The feeling that he’d chosen a good mate. “I’m sure some people will be disappointed, but you’re still pretty fearsome.”

 _“Thank you.”_ He replied, as if he had been waiting for her to recognize it.

“And maybe the fact that you’re not so big will discourage Redburn from trying to capture you, if he thinks that makes you less impressive.”

He turned to her as he walked, eyestalks uneven.

“... Which, of course, it doesn’t.” She added, and he smiled before turning back to the path, “Or at the least he’ll know we have some effective magic on our side.”

“A humble brag.” She heard the smile in his voice, and she smiled too, though he couldn’t see it either.

“Honestly,” she continued, “I can’t help but worry some of the guys are gonna think I did this for myself, so you and I could take it a little easier in private.”

“Didn’t you?” He challenged, playfully, but he was surprised when she seemed to take a lot of offense to it.

“No!” She insisted, “If I did this for myself, at the expense of the crew... it’s to keep you as safe as I can. I mean, this morning was nice, but it wasn’t ‘endanger my crew’ nice.”

“Excuse me!” Tamatoa objected, “Here I was thinking I was doing you a favor letting you change me, but you don’t even care?”

“Of course not!” She protested, and he’d definitely expected her to go in the other direction. He was stunned, and he stopped walking to take her off his back and look at her face, giving her an expression filled with questions; but she seemed just as taken aback as he did, and she took her time before continuing, searching his face.

“...You know I love you as you are, right?”

His face immediately changed from offense to overwhelmed, caught off guard. It was so easy to accuse her of being in love with him - fun, even. To hear her say it herself was like getting caught in warm rain. She stepped a little closer to him, and added a smile.

“I’m amazed we can even have sex at your natural size. I mean… I’m sure it wasn’t quite as shocking for you, you obviously know human bodies a lot better than I know crabs. But it’s a miracle to me, honestly.” She chuckled, “And even if I couldn’t actually handle any part of you inside me,” She continued, and the bluntness of the statement caught him off guard, a dull pulse of lust twisted in his stomach, “We’d figure it out.” She paused, looking him up and down silently for a moment, contemplating something, “I would imagine you being smaller, or, at least, me being bigger to you would be better for you than me in that regard. I think I can do a lot more for you like this. I mean, I can definitely understand if at your normal size, I might not be… _enough_ for you.”

At this Tamatoa laughed, loud and clear and genuine, and Tally stood up straight.

“Oh, _baby.”_ He let himself talk through the last of his laughter, “You are _too much_ for me. Do you _not_ remember how you woke me up early? Put me on my back? Got a second round out of me when I was sure I didn’t have one in me? You’re amazed you can ‘handle’ me at my regular size?! I’m amazed I can handle _you_ at all.”

She seemed to sigh in relief and amusement, her eyes fluttering, but before she could let it relax her, Tamatoa had her yanked closer to him with his arms, grinning at her with his own type of affectionate amusement, his eyelids low. She gulped.

“But there are still plenty of things I want to do to you while I'm still like this... So what exactly would you consider ‘endanger your crew nice’, hm? What would I have to do to you to get you to make the conditions better for you and me than them?”

“You’d have to drive the Reddies away.” She grinned, and his grin instantly turned into a pout.

“Oh fine, let’s get to it then.” He sighed, and helped her up on his back again, and soon they were nearing the camp.

Before they entered it though, Tamatoa spoke up again, with a much different intonation.

“I’m not sure how well I can relax ‘till they’re out of the picture, myself.” He admitted as he crawled through the thicker brush, the camp visible now in between the thin gaps in the foliage ahead, “The very **idea** that anyone, especially some humans, but _anyone_ could even _conceive_ that **I** could ever be anyone’s _trophy…”_ He ground his teeth together just a little, lost in his own mood, “ **I’m** the collector around here.” He insisted, pointing a claw to his chest, and looking over his shoulder to Tally with a grimace to drive the point home before turning back to the path again. “I’m thinking about what I can take from him. Maybe his head? But human remains don’t keep very well.”

She chuckled above him, “I’m sure we can find you something just as good... and nonperishable.”


	21. Cottonclad

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> a very, VERY short chapter, but this is gonna be the last one before the last chapter, so yeah.  
> i mean, there might be one right after it with smut, but if I do that it'll be more like an epilogue.

When they reached the campsite, Tally went in without Tamatoa; not to prepare them or anything, just because Tamatoa decided that he was definitely still hungry, and thought taking care of that now would be a good chance to also get some solitude, which he hadn’t had for a while now. As much as he cared about Tally, he couldn’t change his nature, and being alone was something he needed, if only for an hour or two, and she had no objections.

After Tamatoa did enter the camp, everyone was surprised to see his new size, but perhaps not quite as shocked as Tamatoa had expected them to be. He had to wonder what other magical exploits Tally had undertaken while in the company of her crew, if this wasn’t all that jarring.

Most of the pirates agreed it was a good move. Some of them were upset - for just a moment. Tamatoa wasn’t exactly thrilled they were acting as if they really had any right to demand anything from him, and it made effortlessly snapping the supporting beam of their largest tent in half a pleasure. Nobody questioned him after that.

Most importantly, the Captain seemed pleased about it. It was pretty clear that he felt he’d lost some control (or a lot of control) when Tamatoa showed up unannounced, and familiar with his daughter, and Tamatoa wasn’t sure if this development actually lent itself to his plans, or if it was just a decision he felt happier to take credit for. Whatever his impression of the situation, he immediately adapted to the change in his plans with gusto, and everyone seemed to go along with it. Tamatoa had to admit, his enthusiasm was infectious. To his the other pirates, anyway.

However, the addition of Tamatoa’s new size, added to Redburn’s unexpected intentions basically rendered all their previous plans useless. The time still produced plenty of assets, learning about the island, getting supplies together, preparing to fight. But strategy-wise, they were scrambling.

Cutter’s plan was quite simple in theory, and quite suited to Tamatoa as he was. Rather than one charge where they were to rely on him, their plan was to take out enemy pirates essentially one-by-one until the crew was whittled down enough that they would either flee, or they would be easy to finish off.

So, that’s what they did.

And Tamatoa had to admit, for how much he was not looking forward to following orders, having to do work, he was having a pretty good time. It was fun to have the advantage of stealth for once, popping out of the woods to frighten and attack the Reddies was highly entertaining, and their spines were still incredibly easy to snap in half.

In smaller numbers, he also felt a lot better about Tally’s safety. The individual scouting parties were relatively easy to get rid of, and watching Tally bask cheerfully in bloodshed was pretty great. It took only a few days to clear them out. Redburn’s crew also didn’t seem to go near the villagers either; which made sense. If there were only a few of them left, Tamatoa surmised with wicked satisfaction, certainly they had no need for more supplies or anything to be gained by barging in on them.

He spent his nights at the campsite, but, unfortunately, was still much too big to fit into any tents; and the nights were getting too cold for Tally or anyone else to be sleeping outside either. Still, it was nice to just be around them to keep an eye on them.

The most common topic of conversation among them was what indeed Redburn wanted Tamatoa for in the first place. Tamatoa was content at first to be such a popular subject of inquiry, but the more theories they posited the more Tamatoa became angry over the indignity of them, suggesting someone really wanted him as a trophy of sorts, or even a _pet._ Some ideas just made him sick, breaking him apart and selling him, either as himself or for his treasure, reminding him of some of the stuff Tally had said to him when they’d first gotten to know each other. It wasn’t so much that he couldn’t handle these ideas, certainly not, he was a monster from Lalotai for crying out loud. The only difference between the brutality down there and the brutality up here was that he was realizing he wasn’t totally aware of what humans were capable of these days. After a particularly imaginative round of theories one afternoon, it seemed like as good an idea as any for Tamatoa to take another little break to be on his own. Tally though, worried, followed him this time.

She just sort of watched him catch birds for a while in the area, critters and things, and when he was satisfied with how much he had consumed, he made his way over to her and simply sat down in front of her, leaning forward to rest his head in her lap, his eyes closed.

She made no attempt to discourage him, and just took the opportunity to stroke his head the way she had when he was ill, pressing his antennae against his neck and running her hand down until she met the edge of his shell.

“Sorry about that.” She told him quietly, and he opened one eye to turn it towards her. “We’re pirates, tact isn’t really our thing.”

“Pshh.” He let the sound breeze through his lips, “I _think_ I can handle it. You remember I eat humans, right?”

“I wouldn’t blame you for being a little put off by it. I wouldn’t want anyone talking about different ways I could be bought and sold either.”

“I’m fine, babe.” He assured her steadily, “Just sort of… I dunno. Realizing maybe I don’t know as much about humans as I thought. The idea of any human even thinking about trying to capture me like an animal or something, just never crossed my mind. I guess that’s what happens when you live for thousands of years. Just never know what’s coming.”

He opened his other eye and turned both to face her, a smile spreading against her legs where he rested. “This is exactly why we need to get you some immortality, babe. It would really help me a lot if you could keep me up to date with humans and all their freakiness.”

She giggled. “Next adventure, I promise.”

“Really?” His head quickly raised from where it rested to look her in the face to her surprise, almost hitting her jaw, and raised a claw to give the air a little snip. “Don’t joke about stuff like that.”

“Yeah, sure.” She shrugged with a smile, “Why the hell not? I’m a pirate, so I’m probably going to hell anyway right? Might as well avoid it entirely.”

Before the conversation continued, foliage parted, and an unarmed Alvaro stepped through the trees to find Tamatoa relaxing quite intimately with his long-time crewmate. They just stared at him for a moment.

“Can I help you?” Tally asked incredulously; and after a moment to register the scene Alvaro put up his hands in a gesture of peace.

“Don’t shoot the messenger.” Alvaro insisted, “We need ya back, Reggie’s startin’ to make plans about what we’re gonna do once the Reddies leave us be. Ya both should probably come weigh in. Just letting you know.”

Tally just took a deep breath with exasperation, and both began standing up to do just that. Alvaro watched them for a moment.

“So wow, you two really are lovers, aye?” He scratched his head, and before either of the two could say anything, he pointed at Tamatoa, then turned his finger to Tally. “Just keep in mind if he ever starts talkin’ about sticking fifteen-hundred eggs in you, run.”

And with that advice, he turned to beat them back to camp. After a split second, Tamatoa was in stitches, and Tally was very, very confused.

“What’s so funny?” She asked, genuinely thrown off.

“Sounds like he had an unfortunate experience with some kind of half-lady, half-seahorse to me.” He grinned, and followed Alvaro, letting Tally continue at the end of the line to let her imagination run wild as the three made their way back to the meeting place.


	22. Between Wind And Water

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ok so not the LAST last chapter, i wanna do some wrap up and like i mentioned maybe make room for some actual romance which was the whole point of this fic but i got kinda wrapped up in this weird action plot lmao  
> still, this is the climax... enjoy haha

After Redburn’s scouts became wary to their strategy, the camp endured a few attacks of its own, mostly at night, but they were pretty easy to repel; especially since their campsite was, in fact, in a pretty strategic location; up against a small cliff face, protecting it completely on one side. Nothing coming down from the top had any chance at accuracy.

It was pretty obvious, once the scouts had been picked off and Redburn was sending more skilled men to fight the pirates in the woods, that he was not happy regarding the news of Tamatoa’s new size. The time for negotiation seemed to be over, and if he wanted Tamatoa as a prize, he was definitely sabotaging his chances of trading with them with the severity of his attacks. The crew stayed in their ship, moored beside its own cliff face, making it impossible to attack on foot. The remaining crew were no longer cannon fodder, and  Redburn was being much more careful with them. The permanent crew members were much more skilled, and fights with them weren’t so easy to win. After just one or two fell, they stopped coming entirely, and everyone was pretty content to buckle down and wait for them to retreat.

Tamatoa would much rather have gotten a chance to snap Redburn’s neck for insulting him the way he had, but with things coming to a close it seemed to matter less and less. If they went away, Tamatoa would have Tally all to himself again, and he was getting pretty tired of sharing. For all intents and purposes it felt as if Cutter’s crew was winning with relative ease.

At least, for a while.

After a night of peace, they woke up to find Tally gone.

In Tamatoa’s opinion, everyone was much, much too calm about this; and it was easy to be angry at all the pirates for not being aware of a kidnapping that had happened right under their noses. Tamatoa couldn’t fit into a tent, but certainly the pirates in the dwellings beside Tally’s should have heard something. Someone should have noticed, and woken Tamatoa up himself, and never given the bastards even a chance to get their hands on her. Tamatoa was ready to launch a full on attack, instantly, go face Redburn himself if he had to, but Cutter was insistent that he go alone instead, waving a white flag. Tamatoa certainly didn’t care about pirate politics, but he forced himself to accept that Cutter probably had a better idea of how to keep his daughter safe. Everything was just getting too confusing. He didn’t know what the Reddies were capable of, didn’t know what Cutter was thinking, and his mind was reeling with all the things that could be happening to Tally every second they spent not going after her.

“They’re going to want you.” Cutter said, sort of over his shoulder as he prepared to face Redburn alone, and Tamatoa, pacing, also didn’t attempt to make eye contact.

“Well they’re going to get me.” He insisted through ground teeth.

With a sigh, Cutter finally turned to stop Tamatoa from pacing around the camp, and looked at him with more seriousness and cogency than he’d maybe ever seen from the Captain.

“Tamatoa.” He addressed him, and Tamatoa was almost knocked back by the weirdness of it. He had never addressed him by name, and he could barely processes it.

“You are… fond of Tallulah, correct?”

Tamatoa just searched his bearded face for a moment, and gave him an angry frown.

“Observant.” He sneered.

“Will you come with me willingly?”

This took him aback even more. Tamatoa looked around him, at many conflicted looking pirates. He was about to say, yes, absolutely, and to hurry up for Gods’ sake, but Cutter’s expression sent ice through his carapace. Not that Tamatoa ever fully trusted the crew, but this situation was also one he hadn’t considered.

“What,” He wheezed, an empty, challenging smile accompanying it, “You’d force me, if I didn’t, right?”

Cutter said nothing, nor did any of the other pirates who, despite all Tamatoa knew about his own ability, were beginning to scare him as they stepped more and more towards him. An amiable defense kicked in, and he bent his legs a little, to get closer to the eye level of the pirates, and gave them all a forgiving, weak smile, once around the group.

“Damn, I’m going!” He told them all, his voice just a little shaky, and this was the first time he was really regretting having let Tally shrink him, “If I were you all I’d do the same thing. Wait, I am doing the same thing! I _am_ you! We’re on the same side here! Fuck! Just step back, would you all?!” His voice raised, “I’m getting really claustrophobic here, okay?”, and to his relief, they did move back a little.

With a frantic gaze, he finally made his way back to settle on the Captain’s face with wide eyes. The Captain was solemn. Alvaro’s voice chimed up from the edge of the group as he stepped through, his stance guilty.

“We like ya, Tamatoa.” He told him quietly, digging his boot into the forest floor, “But Tally’s…”

“Yeah, I know.” Tamatoa snapped. “I don’t need any of _you_ to tell me.” He turned to the Captain again with an unforgiving glare, “So let’s go already, _Cap’.”_ He growled with disrespect and immediately made his way out of the campsite, forcing the Captain to jog to catch up with him, which was pretty satisfying. Good. As if any of them could tell Tamatoa that Tally was important. As if any of them thought they wanted better for her than he did. He couldn’t blame them really, but he was still fuming, and that anger and little sip of betrayal had him still full of heated energy when they made it to the beach facing Redburn’s ship.

Appropriately, it was turning into a very cloudy evening. No sun to help Tamatoa sparkle, which was just fine with him in all his distress.

When they got there, Redburn was already waiting for them, with two of his crewmates by his side. When they stepped through the brush, Redburn greeted them with a smile, eyeing Tamatoa, then turning to the Captain.

“I see you already have an idea as to what this is all about.”

“Where is she.” Tamatoa demanded, and Redburn turned to him with a little surprise, looking to Cutter again.

“I guess I shouldn’t be surprised you got him to come willingly.” He noted the lack of force or restraints, and shook his head, indicating shame, “God, Cutter, as long as we’ve been enemies I’ve seen little Tallulah grow up; and you’re whoring her out to a monster for a little extra help in battle? It’s despicable, if you ask me.”

To Tamatoa’s anger, Cutter said nothing, and he spoke up instead.

“She’s not-!” He wanted to reach out and just shove his claw into his chest, rip out his beating heart, “If you have hurt her, even just… even just a little bit…”

“Relax, crab.” The other Captain held up one hand to emphasize, “We may not be gentlemen, but we have some self-restraint, unlike you, apparently.” He told Tamatoa, then turned to Cutter again, “Or is this common with the rest of your crew too? I can’t imagine she’d mind, if she’s willing to service a monster like him.” He eyed Tamatoa with a little bit of disgust, but mostly just calm, knowing he could say whatever he wanted.

Tamatoa’s vision swam with red, all he could see was his own imagination, showing Redburn’s guts spilling onto the beach over and over on repeat. He had no idea if he was just messing with them, or if he really thought that of her father. Of him. Of Tally.

“What _exactly_ do you want, Redburn?” Cutter demanded in a calm, stern voice.

“First, the jewels.”

To Tamatoa’s surprise, Cutter simply reached into his pocket and pulled out a veritable pile of ridiculously bejeweled collars, and carefully leaned forward to drop them into the hands of the goon to Redburn’s left. Apparently he had suspected that demand too, and for all Tamatoa was on Tally’s side regarding the jewels being just excuses to travel, at least as a bargaining chip and something Cutter was willing to hand over easily made his little trick very forgivable.

“Now,” Redburn continued, his voice just a little shaky, “The crab.”

Tamatoa really didn’t know what he was doing to do, but unable to think of any reason not to, he stepped forward.

“Just wait. Tell me how to change him back.”

“You can’t.” Tamatoa piped up before Cutter could speak, sure this would give him some new leverage, “It’s irreversible.”

“Is that so?” Redburn continued, holding onto calm with a fraying rope, “Well then I guess I can just kill the witch, then, can’t I?”

He pulled out a red handkerchief from his pocket as a signal, and Cutter immediately protested.

“Wait! Wait. It’s not irreversible.” Cutter turned just a little to Tamatoa, “Why would you say that?!” He growled, and Tamatoa really had no answer that he could explain quickly.

“Tell him, Tamatoa.”

Redburn lifted an eyebrow.

“Uh…” Tamatoa swallowed, “Okay it’s not irreversible, but Tallulah did it. O-Only she can undo it.”

The enemy captain looked him up and down for just a moment, and seemed to decide that was truthful enough for him to continue negotiations. Tamatoa could practically feel the gratefulness coming from Cutter. A much, much better lie.

“Alright.” Redburn allowed, putting the handkerchief back in his pocket, and turning to look at Cutter, pointing to Tamatoa as he did. “He comes with me. If the girl needs supplies for whatever she has to do, you will retrieve them, and I will hold both the girl and the crab on my ship.”

“Bring Tally back first.” Cutter demanded in a low growl. “She’ll do it here.”

“Oh no.” Redburn insisted, “You don’t make the decisions here, old man. Now.” He turned to Tamatoa, and then to his two men, “Restrain him.”

“Whoah!” Tamatoa objected as the two men came towards him with ropes and chains, “I’m coming willingly! There’s… no need for that, man! I’m small now, even!”

Redburn shook his head. “How stupid do you think we are?”

Despite Tamatoa’s protests he didn’t struggle when they wrapped his claws in the chains, just tried not to mumble anything damning while they did it. The rope they tied under his shell in one loop with extensions for the men to hold, and Tamatoa might have felt degraded or trapped or enraged at the very concept of letting anyone, human or otherwise, bind him; but it had been so much worse when Lalotai had come together to humiliate him, this just didn’t seem like that big of a deal. Pre-heart-returning Tamatoa would likely have never let this happen, in a million years, and he wasn’t yet sure which incarnation of him would be in the right, in this scenario.

Worse than the humiliation of being bound, however, was confronting the sea with no control. As they neared the rowboats, Tamatoa gave a nervous laugh.

“As a heads up fellas, I’m… not much of a swimmer, you know? So maybe just… keep it steady, huh?”

As they boarded, one of the men was interested by this statement. “Aye? You’re a crab, arn’t ya? Aren’t you a certified underwater dwellin’ sea monster or somethin’?”

Tamatoa just frowned, looking at the man with a little disgust and a lot of distaste.

“Not that kind of crab, and no, I don’t live underwater. Like I said, can’t swim. So if you want me alive to be changed back to normal,” He tried to sound matter-of-fact and confident, “You’re going to have to keep that in mind, alright, you little…” He held back an insult, “...Humans.”

This didn’t sway Redburn, who seemed to already believe this was unsaid, despite the ignorance of his henchmen, and despite the dark skies threatening to burst open, the ride to Redburn’s ship was uneventful.

In just a little moment of vengeful pettiness, Tamatoa tried his very best not to let himself smile as he pretended he couldn’t climb their rope bridge, and they were forced to haul him up, boat and all; leaving a good handful of the men very tired.

When the deck was in view, so was Tally, who herself was bound, at least by her wrists. The two men holding onto her didn’t do much to give her freedom of movement either.

“Goldie.” She breathed when she saw him, her eyes wide; and Tamatoa couldn’t tell what she was thinking, he was just incredibly relieved to see she didn’t look any more roughed up than usual; just a little underdressed; no hair wrap or even shoes, since they’d taken her in the night. But it didn’t look as though her clothing had been disturbed, which was a relief.

They brought him to stand in front of her, and he gave her a weak smile.

“Hey, babe.” He sighed, “Looks like we match.” He shook his chained claws for a moment, and she gave him her own tired smile, which already made the trip worthwhile.

“Enough.” Redburn snapped, “Cutter,” He used this name to address Tally, “Can you change him back to normal? His original, large size?”

Tally looked from Tamatoa to Redburn, probably very confused about why Redburn didn’t know about the breakable container created exactly to house just that. Tamatoa couldn’t nod, or it would be immediately obvious this was a ruse, but for just a moment he moved his antennae in an up and down motion, and he was relieved to see recognition on her face.

“Yes, if I have the right equipment.” She told him, her voice sort of coarse.

“Excellent.” Redburn said with a smile, before ordering the men to take Tamatoa below deck.

As they turned him away from Tally, he looked over his shoulder at Redburn, confused and frantic. “W-Wait, you said you’d have her change me back before she goes back to her crew, right? Are you going to let her get her own ingredients?”

Tally just stared at Redburn for answers.

“Maybe, when we get back to England.”

“What?” Tamatoa shouted, “You said you’d let her go!”

Redburn just watched him be taken away incredulously, as if him going back on his word was something Tamatoa and the Captain should simply have expected, which, if Tamatoa was being fair, was probably true, but it didn’t make it any less frightening.

“Are you kidding? He’s travel sized now. This is actually a blessing. When we find our final destination, then you can change him back to normal.” He addressed Tally, “Then you can go on your merry way, just wait for daddy to come home and get you. I’m sure there are plenty of jobs there for a girl like you.”

Tamatoa was not a fan of the insult, whether it was about thievery, witchcraft or if it was another snide, nasty comment about the nature of he and Tally’s relationship, all of them were enough to make Tamatoa mad.

Tally, however, seemed to ignore it entirely and look over at Tamatoa, intensely and mournfully, trying to relay something through a look, but he wasn’t sure until finally she tilted her shoulders and put her foot on the ground, rubbing it a little as if scratching an itch, but it clicked for Tamatoa that she was just barely miming the action of throwing something down and stepping on it, i.e. the sand-filled shell.

As he was brought out of sight, he processed this, feeling his gut twist with fear, frantically trying to process why she was suggesting that. The deck level they took to was definitely not the one they had cleared for him originally, and yes, breaking the shell would basically wreck the entire boat from the inside. It was a very tempting prospect, except for the fact that he _still couldn’t swim_. That really put a damper on things. He knew she was suggesting this for him. Or at her most selfish - for them. For Tally to go back to England didn’t represent all that much risk for her, but for Tamatoa the possibilities of what would happen to him there were staggering.

Tally wasn’t stupid. She knew he couldn’t swim. She knew how deep the water was here. Tamatoa could only suspect she knew something he didn’t, perhaps about the capability of her crew. That was pretty much all he could think of. That perhaps they would be able to fish him out before he drowned. The very idea of it made him shiver, even if he thought there was a chance it wouldn’t be the worst experience of his life.

This was the same crew who was just preparing to turn him over like property for Tally’s return, so would they even care to save him? Destroying the ship the way she suggested would put her in danger too, as a shipwreck usually would. Could he hold his breath long enough to be second priority?

He knew he had to make a decision pretty quickly, he could hear the men getting ready to sail somewhere else. Probably not far, but far enough to escape Cutter’s crew, and inevitably into much deeper water. If he did do this quickly though, would that give the crew less time to realize what was happening and come prepared? His head was swimming.

Well, he’d come this far.

“Hey.” He told one of the men in the room with him, and he just blinked at him in disbelief. “Yeah, you!” Tamatoa moved his arms as best he could with them being bound to encourage the pirate to approach him, which he did, tentatively. The other pirates in the room watched skeptically, but ultimately seemed to just be waiting to see what happened.

“Yes?” The guy asked, quite simply.

“Think you can reach that shell up there?” He pointed to it with his antennae, tilting his shell a little to make its location the highest point for emphasis.

The man seemed to be considering it, but then gave Tamatoa a very challenging look.

“Maybe… Why do you want it.”

“I’m hungry.” Tamatoa said simply.

“Hungry? You eat shiny shells?”

“I’m a monster. I eat whatever I want. The only other thing I’ll eat is human flesh, and I’m sure your Captain doesn’t want me dead, so how about it? If you won’t grab that shell, I’d be just as happy to take your arm.”

“Damn! Yeesh! I’ll get it!” The man protested, then shakily climbed up Tamatoa’s side to grab the shell. Quickly, he hopped off, eager to get away from Tamatoa, and held the shell out with two hands gingerly for Tamatoa to grab with his mouth, which he did.

“Whhy fnk you.” Tamatoa thanked him with his teeth around the shell, and without any more delay, he bit down, shattering it like porcelain.

He felt the sand and dried ingredients run through his teeth for just a moment before, true to Tally’s word, he was very quickly not so little anymore.

It was quite a bit different from his transformation before - for one thing, this time most of the men in the room were killed by the sheer force of his body slamming them against and through the walls as he grew rapidly, the boat indeed splitting around him.

If he’d been moved to the large area they’d prepared for him, maybe the boat would have had a chance, but just a little bit of asymmetry was all it took to break it apart.

It wasn’t painful or suffocating like before, on the contrary, it felt great, like sitting down after a long day. The only downside, besides the ocean rapidly approaching him from below, was the materials of the boat coming down on his head, and scratching him up pretty good. His shell protected him from most of it, but his head legs and tail were definitely going to be bruised - if he made it out of here alive, anyway.

As expected, all the passengers were screaming, and the water for yards and yards became a warzone of debris, bodies, and even fire. For a split second all he wanted was to see Redburn’s face, how easily he’d been fooled, but the desire left him completely when the whole bottom of the boat finally gave way and felt into the water with a heavy bubbling sound, sucking debris and pirates underwater with him.

He was terrified for a moment. More scared than he’d maybe ever been, but since they were relatively close to shore, his legs touched the ocean floor, and while he wasn’t tall enough to keep his head above the waves, he did have a long enough body span, and he scrambled to find anything to keep him facing upward. The bottom of the boat that had sank under him had come up again after the initial fall, and desperately he grabbed for the large piece of lower deck; coughing and sputtering, absolutely miserable.

For just a moment he looked around frantically for Tally who, true to what he knew about her was swimming with relative collectedness his way. Tamatoa might have been worried about her ability to make it through the wreckage, but he felt he’d met his selflessness quota for the day, besides, she’d found some way to untie her hands and wasn’t drowning because of it, all he could do was pray for her to hurry up; though he wasn’t sure exactly what she was going to do. None of the pirates were doing anything to stop them either, probably since at least half of them were either severely injured and drowning, or dead. Tamatoa didn’t really care to speculate right now.

Finally, she made it over to him and hoisted herself up onto the piece he was clinging to, and ran over to his face, slipping and falling a few times on the deck in her hurry, she ran straight into him and put her whole body against him, shaking and kissing him all over and crying - though it was hard to tell in the water, and with rain beginning to fall all across the island.

“I’m sorry!” She wept over and over, pressing her face to him so none of her words were even close to clear, which didn’t help with how loud everything seemed to be, “I’m so sorry!” She sobbed. “I love you so much, I’m so sorry!”

“Yeah okay-!” Tamatoa choked, “Can we do this later?! Get-Get me out of here!”

As if to emphasize his desperation, for just a moment he lost his grip on the deck and was plunged into the water again before finding it again and coming back up, coughing and choking again.

“Can you walk?” She shouted over the noise, and he scowled at her, happy with spite to oblige her since he could feel in the water what the outcome would be, he took a step forward with just his back legs scraping the sea floor, leaning the rest of his body on the debris, and the imbalance of moving sent him down again, this time flipping the whole deck piece over and sending Tally into the water too. He didn’t let himself move too far though, and subsequently he grabbed the deck piece again with relative ease, still gasping and overtaken with another violent shot of fear.

Tally came up out of the waves gasping too, but didn’t chastise him. She came up next to his shell, close as she could swim to his head the way he was leaning over the debris.

“I have a plan, can you hold on?”

He looked at her with a mix of horror and pain, almost speechless. “Do I have a choice?!”

“Just wait, I’ll get you out of here! Please, trust me.” She begged before taking a guilty deep breath and swimming for land. Tamatoa tried very hard not to resent her leaving, and it turned out to be easier than he expected because the moment she disappeared into the forest, dodging the few angry pirates who’d made it to the shore themselves in one piece, he was suddenly hit with a wave of exhaustion; and he could barely think about anything else.

Even in all his fear, with Redburn’s former ship ruined all around him and pirates still flailing and screaming, rain beginning to fall harder, after a while he could barely keep his eyes open. However, after a moment Redburn appeared in front of him, seemingly out of nowhere, standing on deck in front of him with a sword, his face enraged, his teeth grinding. He approached Tamatoa’s face with barely controlled calmness, and raised the sword to his forehead, above his mouth and below his eyes.

“I’d have kept you alive all the way across the sea, crab.” He sneered, “But now you can die here. You’re still worth plenty dead, and now, ha,” He looked around himself, gesturing to the wreckage with a crazed look in his eye, “Now we need the money, don’t we? And you’re gonna pay for it.”

Tamatoa really wasn’t sure that the sword could even penetrate his skin now that he was larger, but from where Redburn held it against his skin it did slice into him just a little, drawing a little of his own, blue blood, and fear was there, but more importantly the amount of resistance his skin put up reminded him that he was back to normal. He was back to normal, and he was exhausted, and he was one of the most fearsome monsters in Lalotai for more than just his skills in thievery.

With ridiculous casualness, Tamatoa barely had to move his head forward to close his teeth around the left leg of the Captain in front of him and snap it straight off.

The Captain fell backwards, screaming, shrieking, like so many of his other injured pirates.Tamatoa really didn’t think much of the gruesome sight of Redburn’s non-leg, bone and muscle torn and splayed out on the wood structure. At least he was on the deck and not drowning, Tamatoa thought, he should maybe calm down.

And yeah… some of the pirates were drowning thanks to their injuries right? He looked around himself. The Captain’s leg wasn’t exactly a meal - the only reason he didn’t eat him whole was because if he’d learned one thing about pirate politics it was that the Reddies still needed this guy to take them the fuck away from here - and as the leg made it down, the taste of fresh blood, metallic and sweet only made the exhaustion more familiar, and the antidote very clear.

With a little tired smile to himself, he shifted left to start picking up the more hopeless pirates with his teeth, flinging them up in the air and catching them again with a crunch, munching happily, in the middle of all this chaos, his instinct and desire for bigger prey being satisfied after weeks of being forced to snack on things not much bigger than a mongoose. The more pirates he ate, the stronger he felt; and soon Redburn had somehow made it to the shore too. At least, Tamatoa thought, if he was going to drown, he’d drown victorious and well-fed.

It took a while, but eventually Cutter’s ship did come around the bend towards him, Tamatoa had almost forgotten completely that he should have been waiting for a way out, but he wasn’t entirely sure if he should feel relief or not. Their ship was not as big as Redburn’s had been, and he didn’t know what exactly they were planning.

As they neared him, Tally called to him from over the side that she would be coming down, along with Alvaro; and so they did, carrying with them yards and yards of thick rope. He groaned upon seeing it, pretty tired of rope at this point, but he allowed them to tie him similarly to how Redburn’s crew had, under his shell, using its connection to the rest of his body like an unmoving sheave on its side. Tally came around the front of him, diving down to tie the rope under his arms so it wouldn’t choke him. When she came up, before continuing to help Alvaro with their plan, she looked around, noting the relative silence, lack of pirates, and looked at Tamatoa quizzically.

“I got my appetite back.” He smiled at her, still pretty uneasy about everything that was happening, but happy to share with her the fact that he was feeling like himself again. She smiled for him, then dove back in to help Alvaro with the ropes.

It didn’t take all that long before they had him pretty well attached, the weight of his front half supported by the boat, just barely. The pirates using their sails to the best of their ability to push back against his weight, almost all of them holding the ropes taught manually and little by little, Tamatoa using the large deck piece for extra balance, they made their way close enough to the shore that Tamatoa could walk easily, pulling off the ropes and finally he made his way out of the water, walked onto the beach, turned around and collapsed; full, but still immensely tired. Whether from the transformation, the near-drowning, the challenging nature of his supper, whatever, he just closed his eyes and thanked the gods he was alive.

The pirates brought their ship to where they originally had it anchored offshore, and all of them came out to join Tamatoa on the beach, sort of clapping and congratulating each other, and Tamatoa.

“I forgive you guys for almost trying to make me a prisoner yourself.” Tamatoa sighed, not sure if he was trying to start anything, but it felt good to say.

Tally turned to her crew with her mouth open, a disappointed look on her face.

“Guys!” She scolded, and they looked a little ashamed before Tamatoa’s claw reached up just a little off the ground to tug at her trousers and get her attention. As soon as she turned to him, he let his arm fall again and relaxed completely on the sand.

“Don’t give ‘em a hard time, babe.” He told her, “They just really care about you.” He lifted his claw again, this time to block his face from their view, “But I’m the only one who risked my carapace to save you.” He winked with a little smile, “Just sayin’.”

She laughed out loud at this, and bent down to kiss his face just a little before wrapping her arms around it, holding his head and sighing against him.

“My hero.” She told him, and the tone was playful, but it was obviously sincere, and Tamatoa didn’t really feel like it had all been worth it, he was pretty worn out - but he was sure the words would ring in his head tomorrow and he’d feel that everything was alright. At that prediction, he smiled against her torso, letting her hold him the way she was, and he decided maybe it wasn’t so strange that her hug didn’t even make it halfway around his head. After all, natural-size Tamatoa was the Tamatoa responsible for totally decimating their enemy and saving their lives, and Tally had said that she didn’t care. For once, he let himself not think about it.

The pirates all were also collapsing one by one onto the beach with exhaustion from the work they’d done to help Tamatoa’s weight out of the ocean, and Tamatoa had to admit, despite their near-betrayal before, he was grateful to them.

The remaining Reddies, along with their mutilated Captain were just a spec in the distance on the edge of the beach near the cliff face that their boat had once been moored to. Tamatoa was pretty content to let them fend for themselves, but as the evening went on, Cutter’s crew seemed to help them, disinfecting Redburn’s amputation, bringing them survival supplies from their camp, and letting them share some of their food and supplies the more selfless (or low ranking) crew members brought out to the beach to save the rest of the exhausted pirates the trip. Redburn begrudgingly accepted the aid, and Tamatoa was pretty confused.

“Do you usually take care of your enemies?” Tamatoa asked Tally as she came away from the campfire the pirates were relaxing and eating around, a blanket around her shoulders and a bottle of rum in her hand, sitting down next to him on the beach, close enough so she could put her hand on his face; though she didn’t.

“Taking the high road or something? Do pirates do that?”

She processed his question for a moment. “Oh,” Tally chuckled genuinely, “Don’t be fooled. We’re doing this for the villagers.”

“Oh?” His antennae twitched.

“If we don’t help them, they’ll at the least harass the villagers, at most attack them. They have done so much for us…” Tally looked at her bottle meaningfully, then back up to join Tamatoa in watching the Reddies gather on the other side of the beach, talking to one of Cutter’s crew, too far to hear what they were saying.

“Why not just, y’know.” Tamatoa brought his claw up, closing it gently around his neck before abruptly turning it sideways with a gruesome sound from between his teeth. 

“Execute them?” Tally voiced the thought, “Same thing I guess. Just trying to stay on our best behavior while we’re here.” She turned to look at the scene for a moment, then relaxed again. “Also, Redburn’s crew has been our enemies for, geez... decades, now. Pirate’s honor? I dunno. Maybe we are taking the high road.” She mused, “Either way, they’re stuck here now.” She finished her answer with a shrug.

“Whoops.” Tamatoa turned to Tally and grinned, and they both laughed, trying to keep it down, but maybe failing just a little.

“We can’t just leave them here with no way off, you know? But I think they’d walk the plank before accepting a ride on our ship, all the way back to mainland.”

“Huh.” Tamatoa allowed the explanation, too content with their situation to care any more tonight. This was the first time he’d been up here in the human world with Tally… Not waiting for attack. The satisfaction of seeing their enemy defeated out of the corner of his eye, a safe and only superficially damaged pirate girl beside him; The promise of peace, at least for the foreseeable future, was palpable.


	23. Safe Harbour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **WARNING!!!!!!!!!!** the grossest, longest, most disgusting smut chapter yet. congrats, you made it to the end of the fic, here's your sexy reward hahaha.  
>  now I can stop going back to the wikipedia list of nautical terms for these chapter titles.  
> thanks for reading! i really hope you enjoyed it. I definitely didn't expect to write a 23 chapter fic, but ya know, it was fun. I appreciate you sticking around till the end. <3

Moana came to survey the damage, Maui along with her, and it was hard to tell how she felt about it. Tally wondered how common violence was on the island. It was common everywhere, wasn’t it? And she was their chieftess, surely she’d seen just as bad.

Still, she felt kind of bad about ruining their beach with bodies and ship debris.

They promised they would clean it up, definitely, and Moana was very convincing when she told them to get to it. A lot of the pirates moved their things back out to the beach from the cap, Tally herself included, to be closer to Tamatoa. Also, the beach was just a nice place to be. Bitten less by bugs.

The shiny decor on Tamatoa’s arms and legs seemed to have held up surprisingly well during his transformation back to normal, since they simply had to cover less area when he grew. But the treasures that had been piled on his back when he was smaller had not fared so well, and while a lot of it did stay, simply spread out, almost back to normal, a lot of it also had fallen off of him and into the ocean, and Tamatoa was insistent that they be retrieved.

It was sort of fun though, and something to do while they decided what to do with the remains of Redburn’s crew. Tally was pretty relieved they hadn’t put all of Tamatoa’s treasure on his back when he was smaller, as the things in the bag at the camp were pretty easy to go get and set in front of him for him to arrange them as he pleased. Mostly though, Tamatoa relaxed for a few days, sleeping through most of the time, which Tally figured he deserved. Even when he was awake, he was pretty quiet.

Eventually, he gained his energy back though. His shell was almost completely back to normal; and a plan for Redburn’s crew had been made. The same day they decided, Tally was happy to use it as an excuse to just go talk with Tamatoa for a while and not do any work on a particularly nice, breezy day.

She found him on the beach, not that he was hard to spot, and plopped herself down in the sand next to him, pressing her head and shoulder against his face and leaning into him with a sigh.

“So,” She began, “The plan is that we’re gonna help Redburn’s crew build a new boat. Which means we’re gonna be spending a lot more time on the island.” She grinned, and leaned a little more forcefully into him for a moment to emphasize her happiness; but to her surprise, he just looked at her solemnly.

“What?” She asked, confused.

“Stop it.” He told her.

“Stop what?”

“Stop pretending you’re not mine.” He grumbled, “It’s getting annoying.”

“Excuse me?” Tally sat back to look at him with wide eyes, “What are you… I’m not an inanimate object.” Her face was still utterly puzzled.

Tamatoa lifted his head off the ground and adjusted himself to bring his claw to her back, sort of keeping her where she sat, and subsequently shielding her from the breeze, and a bit of the sun too. He was pretty warm though, so she didn’t mind, but she was still pretty lost as to what he was talking about.

“No, but you’re still mine.” He told her, his voice still kind of grumpy, “I can share.” He turned his head toward the pirates looking at papers and things on the beach in a group, then turned back to her, “...For a while. But I’m sick of playing this little game where you act like… well, like you’re not mine! When clearly, you are.”

Her face fell flat. “What would ‘acting like I’m yours’ look like, exactly?” If she was honest, she was sort of afraid of what he did mean. She adored him, but if he was really thinking of her as his property or something…

“Admitting that you don’t have a choice.” He told her matter-of-factly. “If you were getting ready to leave with your crew, and I told you I didn’t want you to go, you wouldn’t be able to say ‘no’. You’d choose me, you know you would. You’re not leaving with your crew, you’re coming with me and we’re gonna go find something to keep you living with me for a long, long time, and you know that.”

She sort of blushed at this, not quite the answer she was expecting, but not altogether unexpected either.

“You keep talking like what your crew wants is dictating what you and I do,” He paused, lifting his other claw and tilting his head to the side, preparing to mimic her, “ _‘We’re gonna be spending a lot more time on the island!’”_ He repeated, “ _‘Isn’t that great news?’_ ” He dropped the act, and looked at her with relative seriousness again. “Like I have to wait to find out what your schedule is? Please. You’re mine, and you know you’re mine.”

She just kind of stared up at him. It was something she really should have expected him to believe, but she was still sort of taken aback.

“Well, you’re mine too, then.” She insisted, and to her surprise, he smiled.

“Maybe.” He conceded with a wink. “As long as you admit it.”

He looked down at her expectantly, and she was taken aback.

“Admit what?”

He rolled his eyes, “That you’re mine! You know you’re mine, so just say it, won’t you?”

“I don’t _know_ that.” She smirked; and his face turned into a genuine frown, which was sort of a surprise. He got up without a word and walked over to the tents, letting her fall onto the sand.

“Hey!” She called after him, and he came back with a bunch of bedding that he tossed haphazardly on his back before grabbing her with one claw with equal mindlessness, causing her to yelp and squirm. “What are you doing?!” She squeaked, watching the pirates get smaller as he walked away from them.

“What do _you_ think?” He asked right back, with what seemed like genuine incredulousness. She looked to the distance, wherever they were going, and to the bedding on his back, and blushed. At this, he smiled devilishly.

After what seemed like an unnecessarily long trip, she realized that Tamatoa had brought her near where her crew’s ship was once moored in the hiding place of the large inlet; which she’d almost completely forgotten about. He ushered her into a slightly more enclosed space off the edge of the passage and wasted very little time before throwing down the mess of blankets and dropping her right on top of it, like he was decorating a cake.

She laid down on it, but not in preparation for anything, just in a little bit of exasperation. She put her hands over her face and groaned.

“They’re gonna know.” She complained, “You shouldn’t have taken these blankets, they’re gonna know!”

“I wanted you to be comfortable.” He murmured, and she quickly removed her hands from her vision when she felt his lips come in contact with her clothed body, the end of the sentence obscured by the motion, “Anyway,” he practically spoke into her shirt, “Let them know.” Without bringing his face away from her, he waved a claw in the air dismissively. “None of them are ever gonna have what we have, let them at least dream about it.”

Tally wasn’t sure that was true, but she grinned anyway, he was definitely learning how to make her feel better.

“What do we have that they will never?” She asked, giggling as his mouth dragged over her side, prompting a ticklish sensation.

“Well, I’m trying to show you,” He stopped kissing her body and lifted his head to give her a nonserious glare, “But you seem a little distracted…”

With that he pulled off her shirt, up over her head and tossed it to the side, quite successfully indicating that he was dead serious about his intent; and she seized up when his lips made contact with her bare stomach.

“I didn’t get another chance to have you when I was smaller.” He spoke against her flesh, “But I think it doesn’t much matter. It’s better this way.”

She giggled, the shaking of her lungs making him smile too. She couldn’t help but relax twice over hearing him say this. She knew he was a little bummed about not getting any more chances for romance when he was transformed, but him saying this convinced her that maybe he’d given up on the idea that anything would be better if they were more similar. She certainly had, but then, she was the one that just got more of him to love. Still, the way he stood over her, his touch ridiculously dextrous and heavy all at once was exactly how she thought of him, and he seemed to take some pride in the same quirks associated with being a giant, that also made him Tamatoa. She wouldn’t want him any other way.

“It definitely is.” She agreed, and was just about cut off when his lips made contact with her face instead, and it was different than it had been before.

He wasn’t exactly careful like he’d been previously, trying very hard to keep it within the realm of believability. Taking his time to carefully kiss different parts of her, essentially giving up on her mouth since the size of his face simply made a normal kiss impossible.

This time, he pressed his lips to her face with care only in the sense that he didn’t press her against the ground with his head, but his lips did sort of cover her face completely, and she laughed, turning her face to the side just a little, to at least keep her vision partly free as he pressed his mouth against her a few times, deliberately and without hesitation.

To her surprise, in another new, off-the-books, move, he let his tongue poke out, delicately licking her from her collarbone, up her throat, around her jaw, across her ear and stopping just a little ways in her hairline.

She allowed it happily, turning her head even more and bending her neck to encourage it. She could feel his tongue bend a little with the smile just behind it, and he continued, gently dragging the tip of his tongue over her neck and the sides of her face gently, and Tally wasn’t sure if this was his way of making up for the fact that his lips themselves couldn’t follow the same pattern, or if he was just doing whatever he had the impulse to do, either way, she was happy to lie back and let him do it, his tongue swiping over thoat, the curves of her neck, and down between her breasts, drawing shapes all over her like he was giving her war paint.

Rather than risking a clean claw-cut in one of her only brassieres, she removed it for him, and the look on his face as he watched her do it made her insides do flips. After it was off, he just gazed at her chest with a little sigh, before moving down again, this time his claw dipped down to scoop her up, under her back, pressing her against him as much as he was against her, his tongue pressed flat and wide over her chest, the warm wetness of it making her feel much less naked for the moment; her whole body shivered with the heat of the muscle sliding slowly against her.

He pulled his tongue back inside his mouth, and began gently dragging his mouth over her chest instead, seemingly using the sensitivity of his lips as his method of taking in the nuances of the shape of her breasts as they sort of rolled each way he moved, which Tally mostly found just pretty funny, but she was happy to let him do it. Because she was pulled up by him like this, still sort of held against him, she put her hands on his face to involve herself, curling up to kiss his face as he continued, leaning back a little to let his lips just graze her nipples, pressing himself forward to kiss between them, pushing them to their respective sides.

After his gentle exploration seemed to be finished, he pulled back a little before putting his tongue out again, and instead of pressing is completely against her chest, he let it swipe over her right breast, a significant length of his tongue dragging across it until there was no more and it fell down, releasing it to the cool breeze, and it was this that made her gasp; and whimper just a little when the wind picked up. He chuckled, low and amused against her chest, and the warm vibration of it after the cool attention of the breeze partnering with Tamatoa’s saliva had her shuddering with pleasure.

Which was interesting. Tally had never really had much luck with her breasts as anything more than something men liked to look at. They seemed ultimately useless most of the time, and here a crustacean was, treating them with adoration she didn’t think they really deserved.

“You like breasts?” She asked in a breathy gasp as he continued on her left, his tongue swiping across it from different angles; pretty sure that no crabs or any decapods of any kind had them for Tamatoa to have any instinct to favor.

“You like antennae?” He retaliated, and she giggled. He had her there.

Speaking of, as he set her to lie back down on the completely unmade mess of bedding and his tongue dragged lower, settling on her abdomen, her bellybutton and the flesh just beneath it, she reached up with some effort to grab his antennae; dragging her hands down the ends of them toward herself as she relaxed again, and he paused.

She watched him squeeze his eyes shut for just a moment, and she was grinning, but he grabbed her hands with both claws and brought them together to one, gripping her wrists and keeping them above her head; his other claw going to remove her trousers.

He looked at her face as he did this, which was a little confused, and he gave her an amused, but scolding, head shake.

“Nah, babe.” He told her, “I’m about to show you how much you belong to _me.”_

Despite her hesitance about the sentiment, the phrase shot heat straight down her torso to her groin, and her face gave it away with a pained expression that made him grin pridefully before he could no longer ignore the task of getting rid of her pants. He watched himself do it, struggling just a little with one claw, but he never had any problems with capability of this sort, and she deduced it was more because of his eagerness than any problem with motor skills. That alone, added to her own excitement, and more when he added. “You can show me how you feel about _me_ later, just have some patience.”

When her trousers were off and only her underwear remained, she laughed at Tamatoa who leaned back to look at them quizzically;  both antennae skirting over the thin cotton, very nonsexually. Just like he was using them to gather information, which, she supposed, he was. Developing a complicated plan in his head to take them off without destroying them.

“If you let my hands go,” She tugged at where his pincer held them, “I can just take them off myself.”

His eyes flickered up to her face for just a moment.

“Not a chance.”

After staring at her undergarment for a while, finally he seemed to have an idea, and dipped his head down to grab the hem on her right hip with his teeth, the other hooked with his free claw, and in one yank, he dragged them down and off her legs.

She couldn’t help but laugh again.

“Bravo.” She told him with a huge grin, “I’d applaud you but…” She looked above her at his grip; and he shook his head at her cheekiness with a smile before bending down to grab her knee with his teeth, bending her leg and biting on it playfully. It wasn’t frightening, she just laughed. A show of playful affection only Tamatoa could bestow. He dropped the leg and simply reached up with his free claw to encourage her to open her legs, which she did, with just a little bit of sheepishness.

He seemed not to notice any reluctance though and instantly pressed his tongue to her groin, making her breath hitch. She didn’t really notice, mainly because, again, her breasts had mostly seemed useless - but in all his attention, she was already slick down there, and apparently he was against that, because he pressed his whole mouth to her, and his tongue hungrily scooped all of her taste out with very little hesitation. As on the ship, he didn’t seem to be doing it for her pleasure, he just closed his eyes and moaned, apparently savoring every moment.

She was glad he did it though, because the satisfaction he seemed to find in it made his enthusiasm much more apparent, and now he was definitely going for getting a reaction out of her. His tongue swiped at her entrance gently, a few times until the edge of his tongue found the outer fold there, and he paused before turning it to spread them so he could press his tongue insistently against her clit.

She yelped, half of it a whine, and he smiled against her as he began dragging his tongue back and forth over it, steadily rubbing her there, not actually lifting his tongue so he wouldn’t lose the positioning he had; at least, until she was gasping and moaning gratefully, squirming and tugging at his restraint.

Mercifully, he let her hands go, but not-so-mercifully he used the fact that she was swollen and sensitive now to let her folds come together again, taking his tongue away, only to return it and catch her clit again, easier to find even relaxed, and she couldn’t hold back a whine.

He used his bit of distance do have a little more fun with her, the tip of his tongue flicking and pushing it different directions, causing her to jerk just a little with every particularly successful angle, her now free hands grasping at the flesh of is face in appreciation.

“Tamatoa,” She breathed, halfway through a moan, and without taking his tongue off of her, or even really slowing down, turned his gaze to meet hers. Before she could continue, he pressed his tongue firmly against her clit and dragged upward quickly, causing her to yelp and whimper, her face red and in her own agony. He grinned. “C’mon.” She begged.

Tamatoa finally did pull away to look at her with curiosity that just confused Tally, and she gestured beneath him, and he turned his own head to look at where his gonopods had revealed themselves almost completely.

He looked back up at her and rolled his eyes.

“Let me tell you something, baby.” He tilted his claw to point at her a little in emphasis, lowering  himself to sit on the ground so she couldn’t see beneath him at all, “In all the time we’ve known each other you have been the most terrible… wonderful little tease,” he hummed and Tally noticed with a little shock that his other claw was, itself, moving between her legs as he talked. “And in all that time you have just…” The claw not between her legs snipped in the air, a little mock representation of frustration, “Well you’ve had me under your thumb. I’m not afraid to say it.” With this, the tip of his pincers made contact with her, and she watched them with worry. They weren’t soft like his tongue or slippery like his genitals, she didn’t know what to expect. The tips of his pincers, despite being tips, were still ridiculously large; and she took a great sigh of relief when he tilted his claw forward, letting it move down until the just two of the smaller bumps in the pincer found their way to her sensitive areas, one against her clit again, the other just sort of pressed against her opening, gently grazing the wet, sensitive skin there. He tilted it, just barely, and it was more than enough, she arched against him.

“Fuck, Goldie!” She gasped and sat up on her elbows to look down at the truly amazing feat of dexterity she was witnessing going on between her legs. He did it again. “Jesus Christ!” Her breathing was heavy, and as he gently continued, he also continued talking, but she wasn’t sure how to tell him she could barely focus.

“For a novice, you’ve picked up on how to make a crab happy pretty quick.” He winked at her with a grin, “But babe, I’ve been around for _thousands of years.”_ He reminded her, giving her a slightly firmer rub that made her whine and gulp. “I love that you’re so eager to make me cum,” He continued thoughtfully, and the phrase added to the increasing heat between her legs, flashes of the previous orgasm faces she’d witnessed from him flickering in her imagination, “But you’ve got to give me a chance to show you what I can do. So just… relax and enjoy, won’t you?”

He stopped his ministrations completely and looked at her expectantly.

She was gasping and flustered by his stopping, and she had to resist the urge to rub herself against him, trying to process his words, tugging at her own hair as her head swam.

Finally, she registered his gaze, and nodded at him desperately.

He grinned.

_“Good girl.”_

With that he picked up the pace again, just a little faster, rubbing her quickly, not too hard but in steady repetition and with a wail the pleasure crashed over her, orgasm rattling through her bones, and as she trembled and arched against him, choking and whining in overwhelming sensation, he simply watched her lovingly, his eyelids heavy, biting his lip as he worked her through it, whispering words of encouragement and praises to her for doing such a good job accepting what he was giving her; slowing when it began to end, but not stopping entirely, stringing out every bit of it until she was clearly free of it.

She lay there breathing heavily, one hand still in her hair, the other over her eyes, and this time she didn’t take it off when she felt his lips against her body. She felt him kiss gently up her body, and finally she released her own arm to watch him. To her surprise, he didn’t look up at her with pride or smugness, he seemed to be kissing her just to kiss her, not to get her reaction.

“Good girl.” He told her again, and she almost rolled her eyes at the inherently condescending nature of it, but somehow it just didn’t feel that rude and she relaxed instead, _“Beau travail.”_

She assumed that this was his ‘what he can do’. It was likely the best orgasm she’d had, though she had to flip through her memories of other times with him - it had been too long, she realized. But instead of letting her get up and come return the favor, he didn’t take his claw away. Instead, he began moving it again, slowly and gently this time and she gasped, forgetting any plans to move from where she lay, and Tamatoa used his other claw to push her legs a little further apart to press his pincer a little deeper between her folds, though no less gentle, and she gasped, whimpering and legs trembling and the extra exposure and sensitivity even against the kind, gentle movement.

As he rubbed her again, he continued to kiss her body, but slowly, letting his mouth linger in each place it landed. He made it a point to keep his movement steady while his mouth moved, even if that meant he had to pause and stutter in his mouth movements. Mostly though, she realized that this was why he was using his claw (other than the fact that he was damn good with it), he couldn’t kiss her when he was inside her, and obviously he couldn’t kiss her when he was using his mouth on her, but with his claw making her squirm and sweat, he could bend any which way he wanted, kissing her trembling legs, her hips, her stomach, chest, neck, wherever he wanted to put his face and have a first row seat to her shaky breathing and rapid heartbeat.

He could also give her all the sultry looks he wanted to, looking up with a new one that made her whimper between every few movements. Lidded eyestalks intimately close to her face, watching every twitch of her reaction to his touch between her legs. The kissing wasn’t hurting either. After a while though, he closed his eyes completely, and let his claw’s pace pick up a little, causing her to moan and whimper, and damn, she wasn’t sure she had ever been this loud or this pathetic in front of anyone before. Not even herself. The sheer vulnerability she was allowing herself to show was more than enough to embarrass her despite her contentedness. It didn’t go unappreciated though, and Tamatoa didn’t take advantage of it, instead he showed her only his kindest intent.

 _“Je t'adore.”_ He whispered against her ribs, and her breath left her in a rush at the sound of it. Tally didn’t know french, but she knew what that meant.

 _“Je t'aime.”_ He pressed his mouth between her breasts, then against her neck before placing it entirely on her left breast and sucking it gently into his mouth; wiping his tongue over them both before doing the same to the second one. The sensation of his mouth on her chest and his claw between her legs had her close to a second orgasm in no time, whimpering and letting herself rub against him in turn this time, much too desperately, but Tamatoa just maintained his sweet attention.

 _“Tu es ma joie de vivre, ma petite souris.”_ He spoke quietly against her throat, and she was lost, but his nickname for her was in there, and he said it so lovingly she hiccuped a little under the weight of his face pressed against her and he had her feeling much too good, much too adored, and she had no resistance as another orgasm approached her. She pressed her fingertips into his flesh and whimpered loudly to let him know, and he was happy to take her all the way, bringing the pace up again, pressing his claw insistently against her, determined to try and make this as good as the last, putting his mouth on her chest to cover her breasts as she came again with a shout, squirming and whimpering under his face pressing down on her, his claw once again trying with pretty good success to string out all the pleasure he could from her release, and when she was done, she was still whimpering; but breathing heavily and closing her eyes for a moment.

She felt him remove himself from her entirely, and she let herself look up at him again. _Now_ he was grinning smugly, but it didn’t bother her. He deserved it. Still, she scoffed playfully.

“Yes, you’re leagues better than anyone else I have ever been with.” She told him, “Is that what you wanted to hear?”

He scooted back down, just to bring his face closer to hers with lidded eyes and a sly smile. She put her hand on his head affectionately, and just looked at him with vacant eyes.

“Not even close.” He told her, and this surprised her, “‘Better?’” He scoffed, himself. “ _Please_ babe, we’re in another reality entirely.”

She was surprised to hear ‘we’, rather than him simply talking up himself, and she wasn’t entirely sure what he meant.

“Fine, we’re in another reality entirely.” She echoed him and he sighed with annoyance.

“I don’t want you to say it, I want you to believe it.”

“I…” She breathed, “I can’t think straight right now, okay?” She conceded pitifully.

“That’s a good start.” He grinned, “But I need you to tell me you're mine, and mean it.”

“That’s what you ‘need’, is it?” She chuckled breathily, a little wiped, but dropped the humor immediately when he shimmied down a little on the sand and used his claws to push open her legs again, his head looking between them with loving intent.

“Oh..!” She groaned, kind of objecting, kind of not, as it turned into a little whimper at the end. Yes, he’d proven himself ten fold, he must have known that. “Again?” She whimpered, “Don’t you want to fuck me, already?”

“Of course I do.” Tamatoa chuckled, “But this is very nearly as fun.”

After that little explanation he just grinned and winked at her before taking each of her legs in his claws and getting her to roll back just a little, opening them and bringing her knees toward her ears, putting her in an incredibly obscene position. Tally was too overwhelmed to feel like it was embarrassing at this point though, and mostly she was just trembling, realizing that at this angle she couldn’t actually even avoid watching him do what he was going to do.

In a weird little show of affection, he gave her overworked lady parts a strangely soft, light kiss before bringing his tongue out again, and dragging it over the length of her slit, all the way up over her clit. It was a reminder of how lewd a position he had her in, since he didn’t have to do anything to get to the bits between her outer folds, her legs apart made them pretty accessible to him, and he was more than aware of the advantage, enthusiastically turning his tongue at different angles to repeat the same path a few times before using the angle to cover everything there. She gasped, and he chuckled, the vibration of it surrounding her and she moaned for him in turn.

He went back and forth between sucking and licking at everything he could get there, coaxing too many moans out of her that she had no chance of holding back. She was too sensitive, and when he pressed the tip of his tongue hard against her clit and began lapping at it with plenty of fervor, she knew it wouldn’t be long, her body shaking and she dragged her palms over the claws around her legs, just to remind herself he was there in the flurry of pleasure that very quickly overtook her. He gave her the treat of firmer licking against her clit to bring her through her third journey in and out of ecstacy.

She let herself relax, close her eyes, and breathing slow down until she could almost sleep. Though he didn’t let her go from her very exposing position, she was much too worked-over to feel any shame about it, or even a thrill.

Until she felt something completely different against her and she opened her weary eyes to see him free her legs from his claws, only to maintain the position with the angle of his abdomen above her. Though it felt unnecessarily lewd before, the fact that she was angled upward allowed him to hold himself over her and give her eye contact with more ease, and her chest filled with warmth for just a moment before she looked back down at the gonopods rubbing between her legs, causing her to shudder and moan.

He rutted against her just a few times and Tally was almost embarrassed at how desperate she really was for him, wet and trembling, the tease of them just sliding along her slit was almost torture.

Finally, wonderfully, mercifully, he let one of them push into her; though the word ‘push’ probably wasn’t accurate because there was almost no resistance as he entered her with a shuddering groan. She gasped and choked the more of it slipped into her, watching it happen. He grinned down at the eager pirate girl underneath him before bucking just a little, pushing himself as deep as her body would allow, and she yelped; filled completely and breathing heavily.

He didn’t do much for a moment, just sort of sat there holding that part of himself inside of her and cooing in appreciation, mumbling almost unintelligibly, but words about how hot and tight and _ready for him_ made their way past the struggle and had her that much more dizzy, gasping beneath him, sort of forgetting to breathe.

He started to move, and instantly she let out a loud string of different noises, much too overwhelmed to have any resistance against how _good_ it felt. He moved in and out a few times, his pace very forgiving, each of his thrusts slow and deep and not barely even threatening to make her cum, outside of her own overexcited intention.

He sped up a little, but there was no ignoring that between her arousal and his previously unused slickness it was all a little too wet, and it was much too easy for him to slip out of her completely as he moved back.

Almost instinctively he used his own abdomen to push against her and turn her hips, the gonopod that had been inside her that was much too slick sort of fell to prod against a completely different opening, the unused one capable of a little more friction poised at her entrance instead.

He realized what he was doing and swallowed hard before looking at her face sort of guiltily, hopefully, and, of course, with incredible lust.

“Uh…” He gasped, looking down at his positioning, then back to Tally’s face, who was mostly just dazed, and sort of comfortable lying on her side; it was a nice break from being bent backwards on the ground.

“Can I, um…” He breathed.

“If you want.” She told him with a shrug, “You’re the one risking running into a part of me you may have never wanted to see. My diet is mostly rum, you know.” She smiled; but he didn’t seem to notice or care about the details of the joke, just stared at her with surprising innocence.

“I mean… it’s not a sex organ so… will I hurt you?”

“Haven’t you been around for thousands of years?” She teased.

“Everyone is different.” He half shrugged, but it threatened his balance and he just made himself still, biting his lip, trying to control his breathing.

“You won’t hurt me,” She chuckled affectionately, pleased he even cared, “It’s up to you.”

That was all the permission he needed, and Tally had been right about herself, it didn’t hurt, especially because of how slicked both she and Tamatoa had succeeded in making the gonopod that was going in.

It wasn’t entirely unfamiliar to her, pirates weren’t exactly swamped with birth control, and sometimes men were just stupid. But she loved him. And she couldn’t remember how many orgasms he’d just given her. Three? Four? She was more than happy to simply hear his overwhelmed whimpers as he found places for both of the gonopods, grimacing and moaning with a satisfaction she was very proud of.

Of course, they didn’t fit entirely in either orifice, he was and would always be a 50-foot-crab, but it was more than she could have done for him before, and it wasn’t exactly a major sacrifice, especially when she adjusted to the second presence and she could pay attention to the lovely sensation of the other gonopod inside her natural entrance.

Despite her attempting this as a favor to him, he didn’t seem to have forgotten his plan to focus on her, or maybe he just remembered it, because as he pulled out and pushed in the first few times, he paid close attention to how she reacted to each change in direction; what made her furrow her brow - and what made her both furrow her brow and clench her legs, shivering with pleasure.

When he found an angle he was proud of, he began thrusting with more insistence, and Tally was honestly sort of happy to have the distraction of intrusiveness, as it saved her face - she was sure she would have finished again by now if he hadn’t made this change.

Not that it didn’t feel good, because it did. The pleasure was very quickly overtaking any discomfort. The new addition to the formation began to amplify the sensations more than it distracted from them, and soon Tally was moaning and panting again under him, gripping the bedding, and bracing herself against every thrust.

“See?” She heard him gasp quietly above her, attempting to speak and pump into her at the same time. It was pretty cute. “You’re mine. Nobody else could make you feel like this, r-” He groaned, “Right?”

She smiled, her eyes still closed, not wanting to miss any of the wonderful sensations he was working so hard to give her.

“Mmhmm.” She agreed.

“Oh, come on.” He attempted to demand, but it sounded a little more like begging, “Tell me. Don’t…” He gasped, “Don’t pretend like you can’t talk and feel at the same time… you’re my own little poet.” He insisted with a whine of pleasure, distracting himself with a particularly deep thrust. She giggled in between breaths.

“What can I say?” She breathed, “You’re-” She grunted, “You’re right… I didn’t know I could feel this good.” She pointed out, and even with closed eyes she could feel his immense, toothy grin high above her.

 _“That’s_ what I wanted to hear.” He let her know before incoherent noises pushed through instead and his pace increased. She yelped a little at the new speed, and whimpered into the blankets underneath her, grabbing them tighter.

 _“That’s it.”_ Tamatoa said, definitely attempting to be somewhat domineering, but it came out soft and lovingly and almost whispered, and the way he gave a little hiccup, a choke of pleasure right afterwards gave Tally no reason to retaliate with any banter. _“You’re all mine.”_ He continued in another near-whisper.

The pace was more punishing, and he pressed himself a little too deep inside, sure to leave her somewhat bruised, but she couldn’t help but smile to herself, thinking how she’d never felt quite as cared for, and never fucked quite as hard. It was a lovely cocktail, and she moved her body, raising her hips and trying to grind them back against him, though his gonopods were extended and she couldn’t really; it still felt good to have some control. It also felt pretty good to hear him caught off guard a little his breath hitching when she started up, and then groaning almost in time with her as they worked together to create pleasure between them.

She was sure she felt his antennae haphazardly graze her shoulders, her back, rear and hair in intermittent times, as if Tamatoa was trying to take the reactions he was getting from her into his memory in every way she could. She still didn’t really know what antennae did, but their touch was so intentional despite the way they stuttered around, it felt like attention, despite the ticklish sensation, and she sighed happily about it.

His breathing was ragged, his pace becoming less controlled, more frantic and his limbs shaking, whimpering and grunting with each of his own movements, and a little more at hers, and she could tell he was getting close. She was sure she was too, and even more sure when he dipped his head down, as close as he could get from where he was forced to keep his head far from hers to stay connected to her body. He moaned and gasped to catch his breath as his own pleasure tried to tear him away from reality, his desire to speak more potent.

 _“You’re mine.”_ He repeated, _“And you’re gonna cum for me.”_ His assurance was so serious and voice so commanding that Tally practically laughed, but was cut off by a particularly hard thrust.

Well, he wasn’t wrong.

 _“Just for me.”_ He continued, _“Cum, c’mon, Tally. Cum for me… Just for me. All for me.”_

As over-the-top as this talk was, Tally couldn’t help but feel like it was sort of the epitome of Tamatoa’s personality. It was so **_him_ ** to think this way, all she could do was mewl and whimper. He probably thought it was because she was overwhelmed with pleasure and conceding to him, which was a little true, but more than anything after all his identity crisis, to hear him be exactly himself... all for **_her,_ ** was filling her with emotion that pushed the pleasure through her body to bursting; and so it did.

With a wail and a whine she came around him, shuddering and grinding back against him, gasping noisily, desperately trying to grab as much sensation as she could, and he obliged happily, grinding into her - his way of thrusting with force without hurting her. To no surprise, he was quickly falling apart too, a low growl tumbling from him before his pace became erratic and his noises became loud and desperate himself, trying with fervor to chase down all his own pleasure and send her into ecstasy at the same time, which was admirable, Tally thought.

She finished before he did, and she spent the brief period of coherence afterwards to pay as close attention as she could to everything about his orgasm; his thundering moans and dramatic whimpering, quivering legs and claws digging into the ground, and she was too pressed into the ground to see his face, but she felt him finish exhaustively, cumming completely inside her and taking his sweet time slowing the pace until he was done.

Between enjoying the warmth of the beginning afterglow and listening to his sweet overtaxed whimpering and attempt to catch his breath and make it as steady as possible, the practical part of her couldn’t help but think with some disgust and amusement that she would have an interesting experience the next time she had to relieve herself.

Tamatoa pulled himself out and laid himself next to her however, arm over her body, tucking her sort of into the crook between his arm and neck, and pressing his head against the side of her body in an intimate little show of exhaustion, apparently completely content. He continued to breathe heavily as he laid beside her. His eyestalks, however, lifted themselves and turned to look at her with intent.

“You’re mine.” He insisted for the last time.

 _“I’m yours.”_ She agreed with a smile, and his reaction, a big toothy smile of his own and a chuckle that rattled his whole body had her already pretty sure she was happy with her answer.

After they lay there for a few minutes, she sighed.

“I guess we should clean up and go back to camp, huh?”

He sat up abruptly, to her surprise, and the look on his face was almost offended.

“I did _not_ bring a whole bunch of bed stuffs all the way out here for us to just go back!”

She blinked at him, “It’s not like I brought any food!”

Tamatoa just sighed, “We’re not on your ship, babe.” He reminded her, “There’s food everywhere. I’ll grab us some coconuts for energy later, alright? This is the first time I’ve been with you up here without the imminent threat of attack.” His antennae flattened sideways and raised his claws, opening and closing them in emphasis. “No way, babe. We’ve got all the time in the world, and you’re not going _anywhere.”_

(She was definitely okay with that.)


End file.
